How many lives they have lived, if only for a night!

Puppets and peril, lonely streets and glittering salons—Rupert and Istvan have played

through it all, and sought to make the road their lasting home. But that road winds

through the past—including the brothel called the Rose and Poppy—while threats and

invitations abound: a scheming social climber, a lovesick exile, the Mercury Theatre

closed . . . or is it? Old friends from afar join comrades in the here-and-now, as power,

love, and fate combine to play out the final chapter of the story of a lifetime.

The curtains rose with UNDER THE POPPY, the passionate play continued in THE

MERCURY WALTZ. Now Kathe Koja brings the POPPY trilogy to a stunning and

masterful conclusion in THE BASTARDS’ PARADISE.

“The final act in a grand epic: I loved this book. It broke my heart and made me cry,

but it also made me grin, and shake my head, and turn the pages faster . . . Koja is a

phenomenal writer.” - Cat Hellisen, author of BEASTKEEPER