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Hello and welcome to Slate's Audio Book Club.

I'm the program's producer Andy Bowers, and our subject today is the Emperor's Children,

the most recent book by novelist Claire Massoud.

Our three book club members have gathered at Slate's

headquarters in New York, which happens to be the city where the book takes place. Now, here's

our club leader, Megan O'Rourke. Hello and welcome to Slate's Audio Book Club. I'm your host,

Megan O'Rourke, Slate's Culture Editor. Joining me are our regular book club contributors, Stephen Metcalf, Slate's Critic

at Large, and Katie Roiffy, a slate contributor and author of Still She Haunts Me and other books.

Today we're talking about Claire Massouds, the Emperor's Children, a novel of manners set in New York

City in 2001. It focuses largely on a group of three friends, now 30, who graduated

from Brown and are now trying to make their way amongst the urban glitterati and are meeting

with different levels of failure and success. We'll get more into the plot because it's somewhat

ornate and elaborate. But first of all, Katie and Steve, what did you, what did you think of the

book? What were your initial reactions? I think the book is great. I think it's incredibly

entertaining. It somehow manages to be both sort of a page turner where you really read for the story.

And at the same time, she has higher literary aspirations. And it has some element of the kind of 19th century novel.

As you said, you know, you called it a novel of manners, and it really does go into their lives in a way that's deeper than the usual kind of coming of age book, which this sort of falls into roughly into the category of.

Steve? Hi. I liked it very much. I think I into the category of. Steve?

I liked it very much.

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