Bernardine Evaristo

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHERRECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD It's a hot summer afternoon. Tension is in the air. A gang of youths on bikes gathers outside a chip shop. A teenage boy is stabbed and left bleeding on the street. The boy's mother wonders how this could have happened to her son. She is full of questions, but when the answers lie so close to home, are they really what she wants to hear?

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD 'Evaristo possesses enough ball-busting originality to create whole novels for each of the historical characters she resurrects . . . [she creates] funky yarns so tantalising you want to devour them' Guardian Meet Stanley Williams: Single, in his thirties, grieving the death of his Jamaican father and wondering if there is more to life than his nine-to-five banking job in a sky-high glass menagerie. Enter Jessie O'Donnell: barmaid, former singer-cum-comedienne, and desperate to get into her rusty old Lady Niva and hit the freeway across Europe. The unlikely pair begin an electrifying odyssey that weaves in and out of history, colliding with the forgotten heroes of Europe's past. Shakespeare's mysterious 'Dark Lady of the Sonnet's, Pushkin and his Ethiopian great-grandfather and the mixed-race Allessandro de' Medici of Florence are all ready to have their voices heard, and Stanley and Jessie do what they can to hang on for the ride . . . 'A bouncy. . . touching novel about the search for love and belonging' The Times

"Lots of fun . . . like an episode of Sex and the City written by Ovid."--Kirkus Reviews Bernardine Evaristo's tale of forbidden love in bustling third-century London is an intoxicating cocktail of poetry, history, and fiction. Feisty, precocious Zuleika, a restless teenage bride of a rich Roman businessman, craves passion and excitement. She wanders through his villa, bored, or sneaks out to see her old friends, seeking an outlet for her creativity. Then she begins an affair with the emperor, Septimus Severus, remembered to history as the "African Emperor," and she knows her life will never be the same. Streetwise, seductive, and lyrical, The Emperor's Babe is a "glittering fiction" with a "heroine of ancient times for the modern age" (The Times). "The adventures of a sassy, sexy girl about town . . . Funny, engaging, and a daring evocation of the possible genesis of black British history."--The Independent on Sunday "Smart, imaginative, and readable . . . A rich farrago of historical fact and outrageous fancy."--The New York Times Book Review "Zuleika leads us on a riotous, racy whirl through Roman Londinium--while displaying her lyric gift throughout, and at last her heartbreak to the core, and her own embrace of doom. . . . a captivating tale in verse."--Robert Fagles

Keisarin kullanmuru sijoittuu roomalaisten hallitsemaan Britanniaan, Londiniumiin vuonna 211. Zuleika on Sudanista paenneiden vanhempien kapinallinen tytär, lapsena naitettu rikkaalle, lihavalle ja poissapysyttelevälle roomalaiselle patriisille. Kun Rooman keisari, libyalaissyntyinen Septimius Severus saapuu kaupunkiin, hän ei tuo tullessaan ainoastaan rakkautta ja intohimoa, vaan myös vaaran. Romaani on runomuotoinen, mutta helppolukuinen. Lukijan huomio kiinnittyy koko ajan tarinaan, jota suvereeni kertoja kuljettaa. Keisarin kullanmuru on valittu vuoden kirjaksi mm. The Times, Daily Telegraph ja Independent on Sunday -lehdissä.

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHERWINNER OF THE NESTA FELLOWSHIP AWARD 2003'Wildly entertaining, deeply affecting' Ali Smith, author of How to be both and AutumnA coming-of-age tale to make the muses themselves roar with laughter and weep for pity -- sassy, razor-sharp and transformative. Londinium, AD 211. Zuleika is a modern girl living in an ancient world. She's a back-alley firecracker, a scruffy Nubian babe with tangled hair and bare feet - and she's just been married off a fat old Roman. Life as a teenage bride is no joke but Zeeks is a born survivor. She knows this city like the back of her hand: its slave girls and drag queens, its shining villas and rotting slums. She knows how to get by. Until one day she catches the eye of the most powerful man on earth, the Roman Emperor, and her trouble really starts . . . Silver-tongued and merry-eyed, this is a story in song and verse, a joyful mash-up of today and yesterday. Kaleidoscoping distant past and vivid present, The Emperor's Babe asks what it means to be a woman and to survive in this thrilling, brutal, breathless world.