> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 16 April 2020
  • ISBN: 9780140297812
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $22.99

The Emperor's Babe

From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other




A riotously smart and sassy coming-of-age story from the Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other - beautifully repackaged for the next generation

Meet Zuleika: sassy girl about town, former child bride, A-list Roman babe, black immigrant in ancient Londinium. She knows this city like the back of her hand - its squalor and bustle, its slum tenements and sumptuous villas. But she doesn't know how it feels to fall in love.

Sold in marriage to a rich, fat Roman, stranded in luxurious neglect with only slaves and sex workers for company, it's not long before Zuleika is up to no good. And one day, when the Roman Emperor himself strolls into town and catches her eye, the trouble really starts...

  • Published: 16 April 2020
  • ISBN: 9780140297812
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo is the author of Lara, winner of the Emma Best Book Award in 1999, The Emperor's Babe and Soul Tourists. She is a former Poet in Residence at the Museum of London, and her work has been widely anthologized. She won a prestigious Arts Council Writers Award in 2000.

Also by Bernardine Evaristo

See all