Alexander Chee

the-queen-of-the-night

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Kate-Atkinson

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

East Goes West

The Queen of the Night

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

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.

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

Paris, 1882. 
 
Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. 
 
Only four 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. 
 
As Lilliet mines her memories for clues, she recalls her life as an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept up into the glitzy, gritty world of Second Empire Paris. In order to survive, she transformed herself from circus rider to courtesan, from empress's maid to stage ingénue,all the while weaving a web of passion and intrigue. Will the truth secure Lillet's fate - or destroy her with the secrets it reveals? 
 
Fifteen years in the writing, The Queen of the Night is a literary tour de force that is also ferociously readable. A blazing tale of lust, ambition, betrayal and revenge, it will captivate readers right up to its final electrifying denouement.

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.

The Queen of the Night

Format:

Buy the book from:

**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

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

About Alexander Chee

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter