Empty Theatre: A Novel

“Immediately enthralling . . . In this fantastical take on historical fiction, skillful yarnspinner Jemc . . . seamlessly blends fact and fiction, and her characteristically poetic prose shines through . . . Jemc's propulsive pacing, evocative concision, and the episodic structure make for quick reading. But the rapturous recounting of these fated characters' lives will buzz for some time in readers' minds.”

—Diego Báez, Booklist (starred review)

"Sensual, intricate, and filled with the verve of its own opulent language, Jemc’s retelling of these apocryphal lives delivers all the urgency of their time into our own without losing any of the fidelity it owes to their real legacies. This novel is a triumph."

—Kirkus (starred review)

“Jac Jemc’s latest novel slithers through history to bring us a gloriously reimagined pair of hopeless, wounded dreamers, Empress Sisi and King Ludwig II. Bitterly comic and amusingly tragic scenes are linked together in a narrative as brilliant and beguiling as any of the glorious baubles desired by Ludwig himself. Brimming with wit, style, and grace, Empty Theatre is a satire ultimately as compassionate and sincere as this reader could wish. A tour de force.”

—Maryse Meijer, author of The Seventh Mansion

“I feasted on this novel like it was the most colorful, immaculately arranged spread of delights. Each one of these short chapters is bursting with the macabre intrigue and humor we’ve come to love in Jac Jemc’s work. Utterly delightful, entertaining, and riddled with fascinating historical embellishments and facts.”

—Fernando A. Flores, author of Valleyesque

"Jac Jemc’s dreamscape of a novel weaves history and imagination into a wonder world. Empty Theater is an ingenious and totally absorbing gambol through beauty, decadence, and the bizarre absurdities of lives spent in the dizzying clouds of royalty and pomp. Jemc is a writer of enviable talent and soulful intelligence."

—Samantha Hunt, author of The Dark Dark

“A brilliant, outrageous, page-turning social satire. The mad isolation and aesthetic bubble the royalty lives in become, through Jac Jemc’s glorious retelling, something so darling and vulnerable and, at the same time, monstrously idiotic. Oh, reader, you will follow the tragic paths of these monarchs as they chase melodies and butterflies to their graves, and feel yourself to be so much richer and freer afterward.”

—Heather O’Neill, author of When We Lost Our Heads

“A brilliantly and sensitively crafted novel, both epic and intimate in scope. I was captivated from the very first line.”

—Morgan Thomas, author of Manywhere