National Bestseller New York Times Book Review Editors\' Choice An Indie Next Pick A Best Book of the Year from NPR, Boston Globe, Buzzfeed , Esquire , San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out, Self, Jezebel, The Portland Mercury, Electric Literature, and Entropy Magazine It just sounds terrific. -- Entertainment Weekly.
If Lilliet Berne were a man, she might have been what nineteenth-century novels would call a swashbuckler: the kind of destiny-courting, death-defying character who finds intrigue and peril (and somehow, always, a fantastic pair of pantaloons) around every corner.
But who betrayed her? With epic sweep, gorgeous language, and haunting details,** Alexander Chee shares Lilliet\'s cunning transformation from circus rider to courtesan to legendary soprano, retracing the path that led to the role that could secure her reputation--or destroy her with the secrets it reveals.
When one is offered to her, she finds the libretto is based on her deepest secret, something only four people have ever known.
She became a sensation of the Paris Opera, with every accolade but an original role--her chance at immortality. -- BuzzFeed A wild opera of a novel,* The Queen of the Night tells the mesmerizing story of Lilliet Berne, an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept into the glamour and terror of Second Empire France. -- Wired Spellbinding. -- People Masterful. -- Washington Post Sweeping, richly detailed. -- Wall Street Journal A brilliant performance. --Scott Simon, NPR Dazzling. --Joan Acocella, The New Yorker Sprawling, soaring, bawdy, and plotted like a fine embroidery.
It sounds like opera.
National Bestseller New York Times Book Review Editors\' Choice An Indie Next Pick A Best Book of the Year from NPR, Boston Globe, Buzzfeed , Esquire , San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out, Self, Jezebel, The Portland Mercury, Electric Literature, and Entropy Magazine It just sounds terrific
