From the author of The Gustav Sonata Winner of the Whitbread Novel Award In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death. Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the path that will realise his hopes and save his soul? Over a million Rose Tremain books sold `A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I `There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times `Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times `Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie `Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian