Wholesale Queen of the Night, The : Alexander Chee

Paperback One of the most celebrated titles of the new year, The Queen of the Night tells the "spellbinding"* story of Lilliet Berne. Orphaned as a child, Lilliet left the American frontier for Europe and was swept into the glamour and terror of Second Empire France. She became a sensation of the Paris Opera, with every accolade but an original role—her only chance at immortality. When one is offered to her, she finds the libretto is based on her deepest secret, something only four people have ever known. But which of them betrayed her? In an "extravagant five-act grand opera of a novel,"** The Queen of the Night 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.