Description

Recommended by The Observer . . .

‘One doesn’t so much read it, as one is bewitched by it. Epic, gorgeous, haunting’ HANYA YANAGIHARA, author of A Little Life

When it begins, it begins as an opera should begin: in a palace, at a ball, in an encounter with a stranger, who you discover has your fate in his hands . . .

She is Lilliet Berne. And she is the soprano.

1882. One warm autumn evening in Paris, Lilliet is finally offered an original role, though it comes at a price. The part is based on her deepest secret.

Only four people could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her still, one wants only to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all.

In taking this role Lilliet is forced to confront her darkest lies but will the truth save Lilliet – or destroy her?

‘Brilliantly extravagant’ VOGUE

‘Terrific’ NEW YORKER

Publisher Review

Richly researched and ornately plotted * Kirkus, STARRED review * Readers [will be] absorbed until the final aria, waiting to see whom fate will curse and whom it will avenge * Time * A spellbinding story of intrigue and self-reinvention * Buzzfeed * Utterly engrossing. You won't want to miss this * Bookish * 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' * A night at an opera you'll wish never-ending -- Helen Oyeyemi, author of 'Boy, Snow, Bird' and 'Mr. Fox' It just sounds terrific. It sounds like opera * New Yorker * Sprawling, soaring, bawdy and plotted like a fine embroidery * National Public Radio * Lush and sweeping . . . A moving meditation on the transformative power of fate, art, time, and sheer survival * Publishers Weekly * An epic novel, brilliantly extravagant * Vogue * A masterfully written book. Chee, just, is masterful. I loved this novel -- Roxane Gay 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 celebration . . . of creativity, ingenuity, endurance, mastery and grace * New York Times * A wild opera of a novel and the perfect summer read: swift, smart, immersive and gorgeous * Guardian * 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'