Verse novel review: The Emperor's Babe (2001) by Bernardine Evaristo.

Hi everyone. I am here with my first review of the month for Bernardine Evaristo, who as I mentioned is author of the month. This is not my first review of hers as I did review Girl, Woman, Other (2019) back in 2023. That was an incredible work of fiction which truly captivated me. The Emperor's Babe (2001) unlike that novel is a verse novel.

This is a novel which shines amongst a lot of other books I have read. What caught my eye was reading the blurb. Now I know they say you should never judge a book by it's cover but when I am informed that a novel ‘sings a song of womanhood and survival’... I get an impression it might well be my kind of book. That and the mention of ‘drag queens’ drew me to it.

As for having read the book. It really wasn't what I expected. I gasped, I laughed, I ewed, I tutted, I pondered and then my mind had "NOOO" darting about it. I am not going to spoil anything here but as far as novels go, this quite possibly had the most unexpected of outcomes. The protagonist Zuleika, grew throughout the book. But at the ending I was reminded of where she was at the beginning.

Her journey was different and she notably changed. In part this made the novel come alive and for me highly enjoyable. It offers a truth to a suffering of being a woman. It tells a hidden tale of being black in the 3rd century. While the novel offers suffering, it also offers joy and intensity. Overall I thoroughly loved reading this book. Telling it in verse also added to this as I found that an interesting way to tell this tale. I must admit it cannot compete with Girl, Woman, Other but does get very close to being up there on the top podium of my favourite books. For me, I have to reward it with a score of 9/10.


Until next time,


Thomas.

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