The Diamond

"Baumgold's Napoleon-centered historical features deft, magazine profile-like characterizations and a gracefully brisk pace...[An] absorbing and entertaining result."

"Baumgold skillfully compresses outsize personalities, court intrigues, wars, and revolutions into an eminently readable narrative intricately woven by Napoleon's memoirist and fellow exile...[a] beautifully nuanced portrait of the friendship between the emperor and his scribe."

"The story is deftly told."

"[Baumgold's] command of her subject manner is impressive, and her ability to spin small, humanizing vignettes about courtly manners and palace intrigues is skillful...a regal, multi-faceted feat of historical fiction."

"With her extensive historical knowledge and her ability to humanize her characters, Baumgold has brought to life well-known historical figures...this novel resonates with historical accuracy that underscores the captivating narrative."

This dazzling historical novel tells the story of the famous Régent diamond that links together the fates of some of the most powerful figures of European history. The exiled Napoleon and his biographer, the Count Las Cases, narrate the saga of the diamond as it is brought to the decadent courts of eighteenth-century France and passed through the hands of a glittering cast of characters. The diamond bestows an incredible power for good or evil upon its transient masters, a power that inspires passion, obsession, and lethal greed. Napoleon both loves and hates the gem, which represents his greatest success yet carries a dark shadow of murder and downfall.

Ambitiously conceived, rich with historical detail and nonstop drama, The Diamond is a towering work of imagination all the more fascinating for being based in fact.