All for Love
Written by Dan Jacobson
- Longlisted
- The Man Booker Prize 2005
- Published by Hamish Hamilton
Buy the book
Constantly fusing historical fact with fiction, Dan Jacobson places three extraordinary characters at the centre of an astonishing comic drama
Full of wit, the action moves from one end to the other of pre-First World War Europe. She was a Belgian princess, daughter of King Leopold II. He was a second lieutenant: a man of dubious origin and extravagant ambition. Cue assignations, adultery, flight, the squandering of a fortune, a duel, imprisonment, bankruptcy, morphine and madness (or alleged madness). Enter a real-life heroine - canteen-worker Maria Stöger - who is no less ready than the princess and her soldier to risk all for love.
Dan Jacobson
All for Love was the penultimate book in a distinguished career that saw the South African-born Dan Jacobson produce some 26 books of varied genres and styles, but all written with rigorous attention to detail
More about Dan Jacobson