Attention is exactly what this dark, tense, and sumptuous novel requires. For a book chock full of drama, it takes perseverance to conquer the non-quotation-mark-using prose, to keep one's mind clear on the timeline and the peripheral characters who are sometimes unnamed and slip in and out of the narrative like shadows.

We meet our nameless (and yet many-named) narrator as a successful and famous opera singer in 19th century Paris. Through a conversation at a party which seems lighthearted, she realizes revelations of her past are about to be made public. And so we follow as she tells us all about that scandalous (and operatic, of course) past. It's a long and twisty journey of a girl trying to make her way in a world that would deem her disposable. I liked our narrator, who seemed to go through life with a stiff upper lip, but collapses when faced with beauty, whether it was dresses or an Argentinian composer. Watch out for her brutal sense of self preservation, though.

Chee's ability to take historic figures and give them life and personality is remarkable; I didn't realize this was historical fiction until I understood all the events of France and the figures like the Comtesse and Pauline Viardot were real. It's rare for me to find historical fiction that I don't think is cheesy or check-listy for the things everyone knows about. I must also include: this has one of the best last lines of a book, ever.