The Queen of the Night

Description

Not since Patrick Suskind's Perfume has a work of fiction so vividly evoked a time, a place and a passion . . . Paris, 1882. Lilliet Berne is a sensation, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the story is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four people could have betrayed her. A blazing tale of lust, ambition and revenge set in the the glitzy, gritty world of Second Empire France, The Queen of the Night follows Lilliet as she transforms herself from circus rider to courtesan to empress's maid to stage ingenue, all the while weaving a web of passion and intrigue.

Alexander Chee won a Whiting Award for his first novel, Edinburgh, and is a recipient of the NEA Fellowship in Fiction and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Ledig House and Civitella Ranieri. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Slate, and NPR, among others, and he is a contributing editor at the New Republic. He has recently been selected as a prestigious LA Times critic-at-large. He lives in New York City.

One doesn't so much read The Queen of the Night as one is bewitched by it -- Hanya Yanagihara, author of the Man Booker shortlisted 'A Little Life' A wild opera of a novel and the perfect summer read: swift, smart, immersive and gorgeous * Guardian * A celebration . . . of creativity, ingenuity, endurance, mastery and grace * New York Times * A more impressive, richly imagined novel I have not read in many years. From its heroine's first entrance, The Queen of the Night grabbed me and kept me rapt as it writhed and contorted its way through love and murder, courtesans and empresses, fates and curses * Financial Times * A masterfully written book. Chee, just, is masterful. I loved this novel -- Roxane Gay An epic novel, brilliantly extravagant * Vogue * Lush and sweeping . . . A moving meditation on the transformative power of fate, art, time, and sheer survival * Publishers Weekly * Sprawling, soaring, bawdy and plotted like a fine embroidery * National Public Radio * It just sounds terrific. It sounds like opera * New Yorker * A night at an opera you'll wish never-ending -- Helen Oyeyemi, author of 'Boy, Snow, Bird' and 'Mr. Fox' An astonishing universe into which its lucky readers can dissolve completely * Karen Russell, New York Times best-selling author of 'Swamplandia' and 'Vampires in the Lemon Grove' * Utterly engrossing. You won't want to miss this * Bookish * A spellbinding story of intrigue and self-reinvention * Buzzfeed * Readers [will be] absorbed until the final aria, waiting to see whom fate will curse and whom it will avenge * Time * Richly researched and ornately plotted * Kirkus, STARRED review *