Two women's lives collide when a priceless Russian artefact comes to light.
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. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Tin House, Town & Country Travel and Poets & Writers. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
"Smart and engaging...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 "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 "The Russians are coming in this ingeniously
structured novel that travels between a present-day art specialist
handling the biggest sale of her career and the 18th-century court
life of the woman who becomes Catherine the Great." --O Magazine,
Reading Room Top 10 "Dazzling and insanely ambitious." -Gary
Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of The Russian
Debutante's Handbook "Reyn's mesmerizing new novel['s]...dual
storylines are each intriguing, while the novel skips easily
between past and present, leaving readers with more knowledge about
Russia (imperial and present day), visual art, auction houses and
the lives of the very rich. But its greatest accomplishment is
making the inner lives of two fascinating women known... As a
fast-paced novel, it's a great read, but as a meditation on what it
means to be woman, it's transcendent."
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "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
"Reyn cleverly weaves Tanya's story around that of young
Catherine's [Catherine the Great]. Both suffer because they possess
certain qualities--ambition, decisiveness, sangfroid--that society
expects from powerful men but finds suspicious in women."
--Stephen Heyman, Vogue "Two boss women living in very different
time periods in history--modern-day New York City and 18th-century
Russia--are connected through the ages by their shared obsession
with a priceless piece of royal bling."
--Cosmopolitan "Imperial Wife trains its spotlight on powerful
women, past and present...even though centuries separate their
worlds, the two female protagonists find themselves in a similar
difficult martial dynamic: Both women wrestle with having an
ambitious nature, while being tied to expectations within the
confines of marriage." --NPR "An intricately plotted and engagingly
written literary mystery." --Los Angeles Review of Books "A cunning
tale of ambition and art." --The Toronto Star "Irina Reyn writes
splendidly. This book is full of brilliant observation and
beautiful writing." --Roxana Robinson, author of Sparta "Irina
Reyn's smart novel...seamlessly flits between the 20 years of
Catherine, sometimes in a cold, friendless castle and Tanya,
sometimes in a cold, loveless city. Both women are stronger and
smarter than they realize and both are married to men who are
anvils, not anchors."
--Jacqueline Cutler, NJ Star Ledger "[Reyn] is a master of creating
realistic and nuanced female characters." --Shannon Reed, The
Washington Post
"The parallels between the heroines are neat and unforced...if the
clever Reyn convinces us to appreciate the historical Catherine as
a modern woman, she also encourages us to second-guess the
thoroughly modern and undauntable Tanya." --Bob Blaisdell, The
Christian Science Monitor "Reyn is a wonderful writer-witty and
compassionate, lyrical and sharp-a deeply intelligent and expansive
book. I loved it." -Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans,
nominated for the National Book Award and finalist for the
PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize "Nothing less than masterful and
reminiscent of Mantel's finest work, 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 "An
insider's view of a world that few witness. In "The Imperial Wife,"
Tanya must try to placate two Russian oligarchs who are bidding on
the rarest of items: a medallion that once belonged to Catherine
the Great." --Rege Behe, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review "An absorbing
and ingeniously layered novel that seamlessly braids Russian
royalty from queens to oligarchs with the darker truths of New
York's sparkling art auctions, it's everything a great read should
be--informative, insightful and enormously entertaining."--Carol
Cassella, bestselling author of Oxygen and Gemini "A marvelously
engaging, affecting, and amusing novel." --Phillip Lopate "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 "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
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