This beautifully crafted historical novel by Graham Wade recounts the
meteoritic rise of an orphaned peasant boy from Turkey to the exalted
position of confidant to the Emperor of Russia, the insane son of
Catherine the Great. The Emperor's Barber is a riveting story of
adventure, romance, and retribution in which the author presents the
memoirs of Kutaissov, the Turkish barber who became a trusted adviser to
the Tsar in the eighteenth century. As Kutaissov relates his intimate
memoirs the many facets of his nature are revealed, as well as the
development of a perilous relationship with a tsar usually considered as
either mentally unstable or (at his worst) totally deranged. The
historically-accurate and witty writing describes court life at the turn
of the nineteenth century, using real-life characters and a great
imagination to interpret the historic events that led to the demise of
Tsar Paul 1.