A notorious episode in Napoleon's career, brilliantly illuminated in fiction Brooks Hansen's new novel is the story of Napoleon Bonaparte's last exile, in 1815, on the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic, "the place on earth farthest from any other place." The island is populated by English expatriates and the descendants of Portuguese settlers and their slaves--and by the spirit of the island's first native, the sixteenth-century nobleman Fernando Lopez, who haunts them all, and the novel, in strange and captivating ways. Bonaparte's arrival--with a retinue of fifteen hundred people--throws the island population into turmoil and particularly alarms the slaves, who see "Bony" as a white demon. After settling in a tea-house in a patch of briars and fruit trees, where he will write his memoirs and await his inevitable end, Napoleon is befriended by a teenage girl, Betsy Balcombe--the only person who is able to penetrate the imperial facade and get to know the proud, wounded man within. Naturally gorgeous, splendidly isolated, with its own history, manners, graveyard secrets, and even a vivid folk religion, the island of St. Helena becomes a character in its own right. The Monsters of St. Helena is a novel as unique and delightful as the territory it depicts, and a great achievement for this gifted writer. Let the history books document Napoleon Bonaparte's battle strategies, historic campaigns, and war crimes; Hansen (Perlman's Ordeal) is content to show the emperor as chicken-dinner lover and cheater at cards. This thoroughly winning novel speculates on the general's second exile on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he spent his remaining years dictating his memoirs. Because his island residence is incomplete, the emperor-turned-prisoner stays with the Balcombe family, whose 14-year-old daughter Betsy befriends him. At the heart of the story is a charming account of the fatherly rapport he shares with the precocious youngster: he concocts an island ghost to frighten her, he steals her ball gown, she berates and beats on him, and so on. As a contrast, the island's haunted history is revealed through its slaves, who all know the story of St. Helena's first exile, fallen nobleman Fernando Lopez, and his connection to the island. Witty and original throughout, this breezy yet skillfully written novel manages to create a sense of childlike wonder without being childish. Would that all historical novels wore their costumes so well! Highly recommended. Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. In his latest historical novel, Hansen, author of The Chess Garden (1995) and Perlman's Ordeal (1999), uses language exquisitely, maintains a leisurely pace in narration, and incorporates historical figures into a complex and unusually well organized plot. Using an omniscient observer in a chronological narration, Hansen incorporates the actions and reactions of six distinct groups of characters: British soldiers, Napoleon and the French exiles accompanying him, British residents on St. Helena, slaves and servants, a set of puppets, and the ghosts of the first two long-term residents--Fernando Lopez and his rooster. The narrative carries the reader from two prologues in the early 1500s through Napoleon's incarceration in a compound on an isolated St. Helena plateau. The ending is masterful, tying the many threads together in an artful and thoroughly satisfactory way, resolving questions raised in the course of the novel, and remaining true to the characters and rules of this fictional world. A monstrously engrossing read for fans of historical and literary fiction. Ellen Loughran Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Brooks Hansen is the author of The Chess Garden (FSG, 1995) and Perlman's Ordeal (FSG, 1999) and o f Caeser's Antler's (FSG, 1997), a novel for young readers. He lives in New York City. Excerpt from The Monsters of St. Helena by Brooks Hansen. Copyright © 2003 by Brooks Hansen. To be published in January, 2003 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved. October 12-An alarm gun fires on Ladder Hill, and though it is a mile away, Betsy jolts. "Hold still," says Sarah, lips gripping the pins in her mouth. "You're gonna get stuck." "I don't see why they have to do that. I'm sure it woke up Father." Sarah doubts that but doesn't say. They are out on the veranda of the bungalow, and Betsy is wearing a ball gown intended for her sister, Jane, who is sixteen, two years older. There is no upcoming occasion, but the fabric came in a few days ago, and Sarah, who serves as nanny to both Jane and Betsy, needed someone to stand inside; Jane is off somewhere, reading to their brothers. "But this isn't how I'd have mine," says Betsy. She is looking down at the collar and the brown silk. "Mine would be blue, in the first place"-a good choice, as blue will show better against her hair, which is a tangle