The Emperor Waltz

Description

The most ambitious and daring novel novel yet from Booker Prize-shortlisted Philip Hensher. 'A novel that's almost fizzy to the touch ... A performance of extraordinary flair and majesty from a writer who seems capable of anything' Guardian 'The Emperor Waltz' is a single novel with three narrative strands: fourth-century Rome, 1920s Germany, and 1980s London. In each place, a small coterie is closely connected and separated from the larger world. In each story, the larger world regards the small coterie and its passionately-held beliefs and secrets with suspicion and hostility. It is the story of eccentricity, its struggle, its triumph, its influence - but also its defeat.

Philip Hensher is a columnist for the Independent, arts critic for the Spectator and a Granta Best of Young British novelist. He has written six novels, including The Mulberry Empire and the Booker-shortlisted The Northern Clemency, and one collection of short stories. He lives in South London.

'A novel that is always a joy to read ... Read it and allow yourself to become a better person' Independent 'Important ... Glorious ... He might have the iconoclastic temperament of a Kandinsky, but he is an old master when he glimpses the cat asleep under the table or the curve of a woman's neck' The Times 'A glittering performance ... "The Emperor Waltz" has the depth and pleasurable density of a 19th-century fiction; I loved it' Ian Thomson, Evening Standard 'Splendidly thought out and extraordinarily readable' A S Byatt, Guardian 'A generous, courageous firework of a novel - a Roman candle, alive and fizzing in the hand' New Statesman 'A book as joyful as its musical source ... "The Emperor Waltz" is a beautiful book, both profound and funny. It is a powerful invocation to live a life of joy, surrounded by true friends' Telegraph