'You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?'

The Emperor Waltz Paperback

The Emperor Waltz

Philip Hensher

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.

Reviews of The Emperor Waltz

    • ‘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

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