Fin d'Empire

From the author of The Battle: A novel that brings French history to life as Napoleon moves in on Russia-where the ultimate test awaits. The French army stands at the gates of Moscow. Exhausted and demoralized, Napoleon's men are a mere fraction of the four-hundred-thousand-strong force that crossed the river Niemen in the summer, just three months earlier. Still, the sight of this famous city feels like a triumph and a chance, at last, to enjoy a conqueror's spoils. The emperor expects to be met by city elders bearing tokens of surrender, but no one appears-Moscow has been evacuated. Napoleon, oblivious to the predicament before him, sends to Paris for comic novels and imagines that it is only a matter of time before Tsar Alexander sues for peace . . .

It is 1814, and Napoleon Bonaparte retreats to Paris following the debacle of his Russian invasion. Once there, the leader is met with more resistance-a plot to restore a royal to the throne of France succeeds and a humiliated Napoleon is forced to abdicate and go into exile. Octave Senecal, Napoleon's loyal aide and savior, tells the tale of their journey south through the angry, mob-filled countryside to Elba, a tiny island off the coast of Tuscany. Horribly bored by this turn of events, Napoleon passes the time gambling with his mother, spearing the occasional tuna with local fishermen, and fretting constantly that secret agents and murderers surround him. He also secretly plans his escape and return to glory.