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Reading lists

7 riveting novels on battles for power

Alexander Chee

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

A celebration . . . of creativity, ingenuity, endurance, mastery and grace

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

A masterfully written book. Chee, just, is masterful. I loved this novel

An epic novel, brilliantly extravagant

Lush and sweeping . . . A moving meditation on the transformative power of fate, art, time, and sheer survival

Sprawling, soaring, bawdy and plotted like a fine embroidery

It just sounds terrific. It sounds like opera

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

A spellbinding story of intrigue and self-reinvention

Readers [will be] absorbed until the final aria, waiting to see whom fate will curse and whom it will avenge

Richly researched and ornately plotted

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 ingénue, all the while weaving a web of passion and intrigue.

Alexander Chee

Praise for The Queen of the Night

**One doesn't so much read The Queen of the Night as one is bewitched by it**

A wild opera of a novel and the perfect summer read: swift, smart, immersive and gorgeous

A celebration . . . of creativity, ingenuity, endurance, mastery and grace

**One doesn't so much read The Queen of the Night as one is bewitched by it**

A wild opera of a novel and the perfect summer read: swift, smart, immersive and gorgeous

A celebration . . . of creativity, ingenuity, endurance, mastery and grace

**One doesn't so much read The Queen of the Night as one is bewitched by it**

A wild opera of a novel and the perfect summer read: swift, smart, immersive and gorgeous

A celebration . . . of creativity, ingenuity, endurance, mastery and grace

Articles featuring Alexander Chee

7 riveting novels on battles for power

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