The Empire of the Senses A Novel [Paperback]

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year

The Empire of the Sensesis an enthralling tale of love and war, duty and self-discovery. It begins in 1914 when Lev Perlmutter, an assimilated German Jew fighting in World War I, finds unexpected companionship on the Eastern Front; back at home, his wife Josephine embarks on a clandestine affair of her own. A decade later, during the heady, politically charged interwar years in Berlin, their children—one, a nascent Fascist struggling with his sexuality, the other a young woman entranced by the glitz and glamour of the Jazz Age—experience their own romantic awakenings. With a painter’s sensibility for the layered images that comprise our lives, this exquisite novel by Alexis Landau marks the emergence of a writer uniquely talented in bringing the past to the present.“Stunning. . . . Elegantly crafted and psychologically astute.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A gripping, beautifully written saga. . . . A fresh and moving perspective on a piece of history we thought we already knew.” —Christina Baker Kline, author ofOrphan Train

“Poignant. . . . Richly appointed. . . . Life at any time and place, [Landau’s] title and her prose seem to say, is full of sensual beauty, if you choose to live it that way.” —Tablet

“A sweeping family epic. . . . Internal dramas mirror the turbulent cultural landscape of 1920s Germany.” —Los Angeles Magazine

“Lush, smart, sexy, affecting, interesting, beautifully researched, and well made. Spending time in the world of this novel is an absolute pleasure.” —Aimee Bender, author ofThe Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“Landau evokes the Weimar Republic era with spellbinding detail and nuance, deftly capturing the zeitgeist in the characters’ colorful pursuits. . . . Lev&rslÇ