The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

‘Claire Messud’s new novel will make her name… Buy two copies; give one to a friend’  Economist

‘A splendid American novel, contemporary yet historical, with an avalanche of characters flowing across the world from Australia to Manhattan to small-town America and to Florida… This is an ambitious, confident, most readable book by a first-rate storyteller with the youth and vitality to spread a huge canvas and enjoy filling it’  Spectator

‘The Emperor’s Children is a state-of-the-nation book that captures the solipsism of 1990s America with a clarity and expansiveness that recalls Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence’  Metro

‘Masterful… Bravely, [Messud] projects her lively comedy of American manners onto the terrible backdrop of 9/11’  Times Literary Supplement

‘Wonderfully written, [The Emperor’s Children] has an irresistible cast of characters.  …A delight to read’  Daily Express

About the book

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud, is a book to stand alongside The Corrections as a portrait of the United States at the dawn of the 21st Century.

Danielle, a junior television producer, is on the hunt for the documentary idea that will make her reputation; Marina, the beautiful daughter of a famous and wealthy liberal journalist and intellectual, is desperate to prove her worth - while unsure exactly of how this is to be achieved; Julius, a freelance writer of devastating book reviews, is determined to live a fabulous Manhattan lifestyle on a budget of nothing at all.

The Emperor's Children follows these three friends - and their overlapping social and family circles - through their day-to-day lives, their perceived struggles and successes and their endless search for meaning. Sweeping in scope, minutely perceptive about the nuances of Manhattan life, with richly drawn characters and vivid prose, this is an exquisitely fashioned portrait of a particular place at a particular moment - and a haunting illustration how the events of a single day can change everything, for ever. It reveals Claire Messud as a novelist in bloom, writing at the height of her powers.

Read an extract

To sample an extract from this extraordinary novel, click here.

More about Claire Messud

Claire Messud was educated at Yale and Cambridge. Her first novel, When the World Was Steady, and her book of novellas, The Hunters, were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; her second novel, The Last Life, was a Publishers' Weekly Best Book of the Year; all three books were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with her husband and children.