The Emperor's Babe
A Novel
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The Emperor's Babe
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Narrated by:
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Sheila Atim
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other.
Winner of The Nesta Fellowship Award 2003.
A coming-of-age tale to make the muses themselves roar with laughter and weep for pity - sassy, razor-sharp and transformative -- from the acclaimed author of Mr Loverman.
Londinium, AD 211. Zuleika is a modern girl living in an ancient world. She's a back-alley firecracker, a scruffy Nubian babe with tangled hair and bare feet - and she's just been married off to a fat old Roman. Life as a teenage bride is no joke but Zeeks is a born survivor. She knows this city like the back of her hand: its slave girls and drag queens, its shining villas and rotting slums. She knows how to get by. Until one day she catches the eye of the most powerful man on earth, the Roman Emperor, and her trouble really starts....
Silver-tongued and merry-eyed, this is a story in song and verse, a joyful mash-up of today and yesterday. Kaleidoscoping distant past and vivid present, The Emperor's Babe asks what it means to be a woman and to survive in this thrilling, brutal, breathless world.
©2020 Bernardine Evaristo (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Wildly entertaining, deeply affecting." (Ali Smith, author of How to be both and Autumn)
What listeners say about The Emperor's Babe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rubicon
- 30-09-23
Fun and moving
A nice combination of Ancient Lundinium and modern London. Funny but poignant. Well worth the listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- O. Turn
- 29-06-20
Enjoyable, funny and light
Really enjoyable book, funny and light but not shallow. Not as complex, deep engaged as Girl, woman, other but not a criticism,just a different style.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JB
- 30-05-23
Beautiful narration
A clever story, beautifully written and beautifully narrated. The Scottish accent wasn’t great but the cadence, the intonation, the lilt of the storyteller was stunning
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- elycu 1a
- 18-09-21
. Disappointing
After Mr. Loverman , I expected better.
The biggest let down was the narrator's failure to study the Scots tongue. As a Scott, I couldn't understand half the gibberish she was spewing out. So good luck to non Scottish readers. She gave absolutely no substance to the two female Scottish characters making them disappear within the plot, and made a fool of herself because she didn't make the effort to do a bit of groundwork.
Would have been better to have read this rather than listen to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- CHRIS
- 14-06-20
Perfect in every way
Brilliant book with a brilliant narrator. Who can ask for anything more. Certainly not me.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Musical Anorak
- 05-04-21
An Intriguing, Intelligent & Witty Listen
My first Bernadine Evaristo Audiobook. An intriguing, intelligent and witty read/listen, a solid 4 stars for sure. I can see why Evaristo's work has received such critical acclaim. I loved how 21st Century references were seamlessly applied to the Roman Britain setting. Although you know the novel is written in verse, which did throw me a bit at the outset; due to the immersive nature of its writing - you soon forget that. Effortlessly narrated by Sheila Atim
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1 person found this helpful