The Passion  It was Napoleon who had such a passion for chicken
that he kept his chefs working around the clock. What a kitchen
that was, with birds in every state of undress… It was my first
commission. I started as a neck-wringer..  This is the story of
Henri, a young Frenchman sent to fight in the Napoleonic wars.
It is the story of Villanelle, a cross-dressing Venetian woman,
born with webbed feet. There are four sections: The Emperor. The
Queen of Spades. The Zero Winter. The Rock. Told in the first-
person, The Emperor is Henri’s narrative, while The Queen of
Spades belongs to Villanelle. The pair meet in Russia in The
Zero Winter. From then the narratives switch and intertwine.
The Passion isn’t an historical novel. It uses history as
invented space. The Passion is set in a world where the
miraculous and the everyday collide. Villanelle can walk on
water. The woman she loves steals her heart and hides it in a
jar. This is the city of mazes. You may meet an old woman in a
doorway. She will tell your for