This highly imaginative study makes for a whimsical, yet elegiac biography. Shifting pieces of history, travelogue, and personal memoir creates a vivid account of a petulant emperor and his court in exile.
Description
In 1814 Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on St. Helena for a surreal exile that would last until his death six years later. “A resonant meditation on exile, fame, the stories we tell about ourselves (and) the bigger stories we tell about our great figures.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
About the Author
Julia Blackburn is the author of three books of nonfiction, Charles Waterton, The Emperor’s Last Island, and Daisy Bates in the Desert, and of two novels, The Book of Colorand The Leper’s Companions, both of which were shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She lives in England.
