The Empress and the Cake
Report an issue
Tell us what's wrong and we'll take a look.
Thanks – we got it. We'll review and follow up if needed.
Madness lurks behind the pretty façade of everyday life.
An elderly lady offers a young woman a piece of cake. She accepts. The lady resembles the Austrian Empress Elisabeth and lives with her servant in an apartment full of bizarre souvenirs. More invitations follow. A seemingly harmless visit to the museum turns into a meticulously planned raid to steal a royal cocaine syringe. Without realizing, the young woman has become the lady’s accomplice. Does she realize she is losing control?
Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'On the surface this is a clever thriller-cum-horror story of three women and their descent into addiction, crime and madness. And at times it’s very funny. But don’t be fooled. The book also offers an exploration of the way the mind creates its own realities and – quite often – deludes us into believing that we control what is actually controlling us. Uncanny, indeed.' Meike Ziervogel
‘Linda Stift breaks the world down into frightening fragments. Impressive.’ taz
'Such a wicked psychothriller can only come from Vienna.’ KulturSPIEGEL
‘The reader finds themselves in the situation of Kafka’s Josef K: drifting towards the inevitable.’ Literaturkritik.de
Linda Stift
Linda Stift in an Austrian writer. She was born in 1969 and studied Philosophy and German literature. She lives in Vienna. Her first novel, Kingpeng, was published in 2005. She has won numerous awards and was nominated for the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2009.
Jamie Bulloch
Translated by
Jamie Bulloch has translated almost fifty books from German, including works by Timur Vermes, Robert Menasse, Sebastian Fitzek and Daniela Krien. His translation of Birgit Vanderbeke’s The Mussel Feast won the 2014 Schlegel-Tieck Prize, an award for which he has been runner-up on two further occasions. He is also the author of Karl Renner: Austria. Jamie lives in London with his wife and three daughters.
Why Readwise Books?
Readwise Books is an ebook & audiobook platform that automatically logs how much you and your friends read, making it fun and easy to read more. Learn more →