The Queen of the Night: A Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER, New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, & a Best Book of the Year from NPR, Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, & others. The mesmerizing story of one woman's rise from circus rider to courtesan to world-renowned diva??—??"a brilliant performance" (Washington Post).

The Queen of the Night tells the captivating story of Lilliet Berne, an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe & 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 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 who betrayed her?  

With epic sweep, gorgeous language, & haunting details, Alexander Chee 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.

“It just sounds terrific. It sounds like opera.”??—??The New Yorker

“Sprawling, soaring, bawdy, and plotted like a fine embroidery.”??—??NPR

“One doesn’t so much read Alexander Chee’s The Queen of the Night as one is bewitched by it," says Hanya Yanagihara, of Alexander Chee’s much anticipated second novel: one woman’s rise from pioneer girl to circus rider to courtesan to world-renowned diva in 19th Century Paris.

Alexander Chee is the author of the novels Edinburgh, The Queen of the Night, & the essay collection How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April of 2018.

He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, & an editor at large at VQR. His essays & stories have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, T Magazine, Tin House, Slate, Guernica, & Out. He is an associate professor of English