Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2016
288 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
"The Imperial Wife is a smart, engaging novel that parallels two fascinating worlds and two singular women. Irina Reyn writes beautifully of immigrants, art and the vagaries of love." - Jess Walter, National Book Award finalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Ruins
Two women's lives collide when a priceless Russian artifact comes to light.
Tanya Kagan, a rising specialist in Russian art at a top New York auction house, is trying to entice Russia's wealthy oligarchs to bid on the biggest sale of her career, The Order of Saint Catherine, while making sense of the sudden and unexplained departure of her husband.
As questions arise over the provenance of the Order and auction fever kicks in, Reyn takes us into the world of Catherine the Great, the infamous 18th-century empress who may have owned the priceless artifact, and who it turns out faced many of the same issues Tanya wrestles with in her own life.
Suspenseful and beautifully written, The Imperial Wife asks whether we view female ambition any differently today than we did in the past. Can a contemporary marriage withstand an "Imperial Wife"?
"With its sharp characterizations and unexpected twists, Reyn's novel keeps readers on their toes. Both women elicit compassion due to their position as outsiders, and their stories intertwine in playful and profound ways." - Booklist
"A twist at the end pulls the stories together in a satisfying manner. The stories of two eras and two marriages are related in evocative language steeped in keenly observed details." - Kirkus
"This intriguing novel carries the reader between modern day Manhattan and Russia in the age of Catherine the Great. Prepare to be absorbed and transported." - Elin Hilderbrand, bestselling author of The Rumor
"If only we could meet our historical counterparts. Reyn does just that, aligning a Russian art specialist in contemporary New York and Catherine the Great. The dual narratives make for an imaginative, thrilling, and exquisite novel." - Kaui Hart Hemmings, New York Times bestselling author of The Descendants
"Dazzling and insanely ambitious." - Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Little Failure: A Memoir
"Irina Reyn is a wonderful writer - witty and compassionate, lyrical and sharp - and The Imperial Wife is a deeply intelligent and expansive book that offers as many fascinating insights into love and ambition as it does about Catherine the Great and the contemporary art world. I loved it." - Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans, nominated for the National Book Award and finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize
"This is the most satisfying novel I've read in a long, long time." - Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Girls in Trucks and Abroad
"This book is full of brilliant observation and beautiful writing." - Roxana Robinson, author of Sparta
"A marvelously engaging, affecting and amusing novel." - Phillip Lopate
This information about The Imperial Wife was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Irina Reyn is the author of What Happened to Anna K: A Novel. She is also the editor of the anthology Living on the Edge of the World: New Jersey Writers Take on the Garden State. She has reviewed books for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Forward, and other publications. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in One Story, Tin House, Town & Country Travel and Poets & Writers. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
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