brigdh

14. Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe

This is a novel in verse (which put me off a bit when I first realized it, but it actually works very well), set in Roman-era London, starring a young Sudanese woman. Most of the novel deals with the main character's tomboy-ish childhood and her friendship with another woman and a drag queen named Venus, but the climax comes when she has a affair with the Emperor. There's a lot of deliberate anachronisms such as brand names, musicians, and slang, stirred in with historically accurate details like Latin phrases or trips to watch gladiators fight, and I really enjoyed the bright, vivid world this mix created. Most of the tone of the novel is funny, optimistic, and confident, and so when the ending comes I found it both surprising and very effective.

Really recommend. I'll be looking up the author's other books.

Crossposted to