Garden of Venus is the story of an extraordinary life woven into the fabric of Eastern European history. A saga that sweeps from the olive groves of Greece to the bazaars of Istanbul, from a draughty Berlin palace to the inner chambers of Marie Antoinette’s gilded Parisian boudoir, this is the life of a girl—daughter of a Greek peasant—who became a courtesan, courtier, countess and confidante to tsars, queens and kings.

Based on the life of the famous and beloved courtier and countess La Belle Phanariote, Stachniak’s novel is brilliantly written and alive with unforgettable characters. Garden of Venus is an alluring, sensuous and exotic saga from a winner of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

Eva Stachniak was born in Wroclaw, Poland, and came to Canada in 1981. She has been a radio broadcaster and college English and Humanities lecturer. Her debut novel, Necessary Lies, won the Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and her second novel, Garden Of Venus, has been translated into seven languages. Her third novel, The Winter Palace, has been published in Canada (Doubleday), US (Bantam) and the UK (Transworld) and will soon appear in Holland, Germany, and Poland.

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