Amberlough Finds Solace in Art in a Time of Tyranny
The drink in your hand is bright, and goes down like a dream. People flit around you in the dark of the theatre, running their hands over your shoulders, offering you another glass, or winking with promise. There’s a hum in the air; around you—at the bar, by the doors, at the tables—are the promising politicians and movers of Amberlough City, here for the same reason you are, the same reason anyone who’s anyone comes to the Bumble Bee Cabaret: the entertainment. And Aristide and Cordelia have got a real showstopper cooking. Who cares if there’s smoke on the wind? Who cares if fascism’s roar is threatening our songs? Better to fight, better to dance, better to rage than to roll over and die. Come along now…the show is starting.
Amberlough: Book 1 in the Amberlough Dossier
Hardcover $25.99
Amberlough: Book 1 in the Amberlough Dossier
Hardcover $25.99
Amberlough City is the jewel of Gedda, rich and decadent like a never-ending dessert, a glass of gin that never empties. It is a bastion of art, culture, society, sex, drugs, and expression, shining on the brow of the nation, the very image of prosperity. But the One State Party, the “Ospies,” a radicalized conservative movement doing its best to take over the country, needs Amberlough’s political system to fall if they’re going to take it over, and they’ve found the perfect man to do their work for them: Cyril DePaul, a fragile, shattered intelligence operative who is sent on assignment to investigate the One State Party, and gets burned. Facing death or betrayal, he chooses the latter, and a deadly cat and mouse game begins. Because while Cyril has sold out his city, he’ll be damned if he sells out the man he loves—the glamorous, dangerous Aristide Makricosta, smuggler and nominal worker at the Bumble Bee Cabaret.
To keep their affairs of state and of the heart going, Aristide hires out fellow dancer and cabaret worker Cordelia Lehane to act as a go-between for he and Cyril to communicate, as well as provide a beautiful cover for Cyril, since the Ospies demonize homosexual relationships. What follows is a dangerous, dazzling, and heartbreaking journey, as three people with everything to lose fight to keep their city intact and each other from falling apart.
Amberlough is nothing short of a breathtaking debut. Lara Elena Donnelly juggles a narrative that is equal parts luxurious, vintage drama about two men whose love for each other wars with their separate duties; knife-edge tango of spy work, war games, and political machinations; and knock-em-down, drag-em-out fight against fascism as the men and women on the ground floor of Amberlough City have to defend what’s theirs in the face in tyranny. It is very much a novel of our times, but the lyrical, incisive prose flexes its muscles to show that tyranny can be fought, and it can be hampered by the power of the people.
In painstaking detail, Donnelly illustrates how oppression can grow from the smallest seeds, and how the most poisonous of weapons is the word, “compromise.” She examines how far people will let themselves be pushed until they will longer stay silent, and shows us how far people will push themselves—to hide parts of their heart, to force themselves to become something or someone they’re not—if it means they’ll live another day. There are hard moments in this novel. It is the opening act of a tragedy, but but there are slim slivers of hope to be glimpsed through the curtains. We can only hope we last long enough on the stage to see them appear.
If this book only worked because of the might of its metaphor, it would still be a good novel. However, in the loving details with which it paints of the three protagonists, and the complex rise and fall of their relationships as the city approaches the fire, it becomes a triumph. Each of these people is beautiful and terrible, broken in so many different ways. We meet Cyril DePaul as a man so hurt by a past tragedy that the ghost of it practically lives under his skin; his only release is with Aristide. When he’s burned, he must even turn away from that pleasure, and his keeping his lover alive becomes his only. Aristide is brilliant and petulant, and uses his mind and his body to his pleasure and advantage, but as the impending conflict grows, his past haunts his steps, and he hurries ever further, hoping to outrun its shadow and catch the future he wants. Cordelia was born on the bottom of a ladder sawed in half; she knows the game is rigged, and has worked her ass off just to stay afloat. When she gets the chance to work for Aristide, she jumps, hoping she can use it to propel her to a decent world. When the OSP approach, her fear and courage drive her to make a decision that could change the whole city. These characters, and so many more that fill out this decadent landscape, are messed up and magnificent. Their lives bring a decadent world to vibrant life
Art is a necessary balm in the time of tyranny. It can inspire. It can stoke the flames of resistance. To choose to sing and dance and laugh in the face of encroaching darkness is a political choice, a brave and beautiful one. Amberlough is a song in the dark. It furiously asserts that art is worthy in the time of uncertainty, that it can be weaponized, lethal. Some fights may be lost, true. Some ground may be given up. But the war isn’t over until the final bows have been taken. Stand up for integrity. Pour yourself a gin and tonic. Wear your best suit. Come stay in Amberlough City. The curtain has yet to fall.
Amberlough is available now.
Amberlough City is the jewel of Gedda, rich and decadent like a never-ending dessert, a glass of gin that never empties. It is a bastion of art, culture, society, sex, drugs, and expression, shining on the brow of the nation, the very image of prosperity. But the One State Party, the “Ospies,” a radicalized conservative movement doing its best to take over the country, needs Amberlough’s political system to fall if they’re going to take it over, and they’ve found the perfect man to do their work for them: Cyril DePaul, a fragile, shattered intelligence operative who is sent on assignment to investigate the One State Party, and gets burned. Facing death or betrayal, he chooses the latter, and a deadly cat and mouse game begins. Because while Cyril has sold out his city, he’ll be damned if he sells out the man he loves—the glamorous, dangerous Aristide Makricosta, smuggler and nominal worker at the Bumble Bee Cabaret.
To keep their affairs of state and of the heart going, Aristide hires out fellow dancer and cabaret worker Cordelia Lehane to act as a go-between for he and Cyril to communicate, as well as provide a beautiful cover for Cyril, since the Ospies demonize homosexual relationships. What follows is a dangerous, dazzling, and heartbreaking journey, as three people with everything to lose fight to keep their city intact and each other from falling apart.
Amberlough is nothing short of a breathtaking debut. Lara Elena Donnelly juggles a narrative that is equal parts luxurious, vintage drama about two men whose love for each other wars with their separate duties; knife-edge tango of spy work, war games, and political machinations; and knock-em-down, drag-em-out fight against fascism as the men and women on the ground floor of Amberlough City have to defend what’s theirs in the face in tyranny. It is very much a novel of our times, but the lyrical, incisive prose flexes its muscles to show that tyranny can be fought, and it can be hampered by the power of the people.
In painstaking detail, Donnelly illustrates how oppression can grow from the smallest seeds, and how the most poisonous of weapons is the word, “compromise.” She examines how far people will let themselves be pushed until they will longer stay silent, and shows us how far people will push themselves—to hide parts of their heart, to force themselves to become something or someone they’re not—if it means they’ll live another day. There are hard moments in this novel. It is the opening act of a tragedy, but but there are slim slivers of hope to be glimpsed through the curtains. We can only hope we last long enough on the stage to see them appear.
If this book only worked because of the might of its metaphor, it would still be a good novel. However, in the loving details with which it paints of the three protagonists, and the complex rise and fall of their relationships as the city approaches the fire, it becomes a triumph. Each of these people is beautiful and terrible, broken in so many different ways. We meet Cyril DePaul as a man so hurt by a past tragedy that the ghost of it practically lives under his skin; his only release is with Aristide. When he’s burned, he must even turn away from that pleasure, and his keeping his lover alive becomes his only. Aristide is brilliant and petulant, and uses his mind and his body to his pleasure and advantage, but as the impending conflict grows, his past haunts his steps, and he hurries ever further, hoping to outrun its shadow and catch the future he wants. Cordelia was born on the bottom of a ladder sawed in half; she knows the game is rigged, and has worked her ass off just to stay afloat. When she gets the chance to work for Aristide, she jumps, hoping she can use it to propel her to a decent world. When the OSP approach, her fear and courage drive her to make a decision that could change the whole city. These characters, and so many more that fill out this decadent landscape, are messed up and magnificent. Their lives bring a decadent world to vibrant life
Art is a necessary balm in the time of tyranny. It can inspire. It can stoke the flames of resistance. To choose to sing and dance and laugh in the face of encroaching darkness is a political choice, a brave and beautiful one. Amberlough is a song in the dark. It furiously asserts that art is worthy in the time of uncertainty, that it can be weaponized, lethal. Some fights may be lost, true. Some ground may be given up. But the war isn’t over until the final bows have been taken. Stand up for integrity. Pour yourself a gin and tonic. Wear your best suit. Come stay in Amberlough City. The curtain has yet to fall.
Amberlough is available now.