Shadows of an Empress

When a recurring dream about a city she can’t identify leaves Sylvia feeling unsettled and restless, she suddenly awakens one night to find the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, dressed in black, sitting in her living room. Suspecting their lives are somehow linked, but unable to find the answers in Sylvia’s daily life, they embark on a whirlwind tour of places related to the empress’s past, this time led by Sissi, Elisabeth’s younger version. Along the way, the Archduchess Sophie arranges a courtship between Sylvia and Franz Joseph, a heart-broken Heinrich Heine laments the empress’s tendency to credit him for her awful poetry, and Sigmund Freud offers commentary on their journey.A creative writing professor at California University of Pennsylvania, Carole Waterhouse is the author of two previous novels, The Tapestry Baby, and Without Wings, as well as a short story collection, The Paradise Ranch. Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including The Massachusetts Review, Crack the Spine, Crossconnect, and Turnrow.

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