about the author
about the books
the empress of south america
The true story of Eliza Lynch: the Irish courtesan who destroyed Latin America’s wealthiest country – and became its national heroine. 'An unforgiving and furious account...of the Lady Macbeth of Paraguay' Guardian 'Does full justice to the mixture of horror and farce that characterised Franciso's tyranny' Financial Times '[An] absorbing account of a fascinating true story' Belfast Telegraph |
 |
The true story of Eliza Lynch: the Irish courtesan who destroyed Latin America’s wealthiest country – and became its national heroine. Few nineteenth-century women travelled quite as far in their lives as Eliza Lynch, from a childhood in the Ireland of the potato famine to a career as courtesan in Paris, from marriage to a vet in the French army in North Africa to power and wealth as the companion of Francisco Solano López, the dictator of Paraguay. The Empress of South America tells the story of her extraordinary life, from childhood to the theft of her body from a Paris cemetery and her final return to South America. Her fascinating story, both terrible and blackly farcical, shows that nothing is sacred in the hunt for power, not even history itself. |