The Emperor's Babe

A coming-of-age tale to make the muses themselves roar with laughter and weep for pity - sassy, razor-sharp and transformative - from the acclaimed author of Mr Loverman “If there is any justice in the world, The Emperor’s Babe will be a huge hit. Fictions like Evaristo’s, overflowing with energy and originality, are as rare as the sauteed peacock brains she has her heroine consume...” - The TimesLondinium, 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 to 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... "Holy Po-Mo, Batman! How about a historical, multicultural, transgender novel - in verse, yet!... There are some stories that just can’t be told straight, and newcomer Evaristo doesn’t bother trying. She lets herself go wild in this account of the fabulous life and celebrated adventures of Zuleika... Truly crazy, lots of fun, and more than slightly perverse: this reads like an episode of Sex and the City written by Ovid." - Kirkus ReviewsSilver-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. Londinium, Britannia, A.D. 211. A city of slum tenements and sumptuous villas, of orgy queens, drag queens, and drama queens. A city where the currency is often sex, where children go to work at age five, and marriage is a career move. Through the bustling city we follow Zuleika, the feisty, precocious daughter of Sudanese immigrants-made-good. Married off at eleven to Felix, a rich Roman senator three times her age who is usually away on business, Zuleika drifts around his beautiful villa, bored, or sneaks out to see her old friends. Then one night at the theater, several years later, she is spotted by the visiting Roman emperor, Septimus Severus, and they begin a passionate affair. This is the unforgettable story of Zuleika, the Emperor's Babe, told through a dazzling fusion of poetry and fiction, history and myth. Funny, playful, and erotic, Bernardine Evaristo's novel in verse is a triumph of imaginative writing and a gorgeously readable and vivid narrative. "Readable, sexy, delicious . . . I loved this book!" (Helen Dunmore, author of A Spell of Winter ) "Evaristo's triumph is to transmute politics and history into a glittering fiction whose words leap off the page into life. Anarchic, she calls it, but brilliant would do just as well." ( The Times , London) "Londinium, Britannia, A.D. 211. A city of slum tenements and sumptuous villas, of orgy queens, drag queens, and drama queens. A city where the currency is often sex, where children go to work at age five, where marriage is a career move. In this bustling city lives Zuleika, the feisty, precocious daughter of Sudanese immigrants-made-good. Married off at eleven to a rich Roman who is three times her age and usually away on business, Zuleika drifts about his beautiful villa, bored, or sneaks out to see her old friends. Several years pass and still she craves passion, excitement, love, - and an outlet for her restless creativity. Then one night at the theater, she catches the eye of the visiting Roman Emperor Septimius Severus."--BOOK JACKET. Dazzling', 'brilliant', 'streetwise', 'sassy', 'audacious': THE EMPEROR'S BABE has been hailed as one of the most original novels of 2001. Meet Zuleika: sassy girl about town, hellraiser, bored ex-child-bride in Londinium, AD 211. In the place (and time) to be ... Through the bustling, hustling city, we follow Zuleika, feisty and precocious daughter of Sudanese immigrants. Married off to a rich, fat, absent Roman, she is stranded in luxurious neglect, until, one day the Emperor himself, comes to town, bringing with him not just love - but danger ... Funky and funny, sexy and moving, this novel in verse is a triumph of imaginative writing - and of sheer lyrical and emotional vitality. Zuleika, the daughter of Sudanese immigrants in 211 Londinium, catches the eye of Emperor Septimius Severus