The Emperor's Barber

This beautifully crafted historical novel by Graham Wade recounts the meteoritic rise of an orphaned peasant boy from Turkey to the exalted position of confidant to the Emperor of Russia, the insane son of Catherine the Great. The Emperor's Barber is a riveting story of adventure, romance, and retribution in which the author presents the memoirs of Kutaissov, the Turkish barber who became a trusted adviser to the Tsar in the eighteenth century. As Kutaissov relates his intimate memoirs the many facets of his nature are revealed, as well as the development of a perilous relationship with a tsar usually considered as either mentally unstable or (at his worst) totally deranged. The historically accurate and witty writing describes court life at the turn of the nineteenth century, using real-life characters and a great imagination to interpret the historic events that led to the demise of Tsar Paul 1.