{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593466713?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0593466713","authors":["Charles King"],"book_id":"9780385548267","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780385548267","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780385548267.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","description":"NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • From the bestselling historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, the moving untold story of the eighteenth-century men and women behind the making of Handel’s Messiah. \"A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure.\"—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World \"A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach.\"—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra and The Revolutionary George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is arguably the greatest piece of participatory art ever created. Adored by millions, it is performed each year by renowned choirs and orchestras, as well as by audiences singing along with the words on their cell phones. But this work of triumphant joy was born in a worried age. Britain in the early Enlightenment was a place of astonishing creativity but also the seat of an empire mired in war, enslavement, and conflicts over everything from the legitimacy of government to the meaning of truth. Against this turbulent background, prize-winning author Charles King has crafted a cinematic drama of the troubled lives that shaped a masterpiece of hope. Every Valley presents a depressive dissenter stirred to action by an ancient prophecy; an actress plagued by an abusive husband and public scorn; an Atlantic sea captain and penniless philanthropist; and an African Muslim man held captive in the American colonies and hatching a dangerous plan for getting back home. At center stage is Handel himself, composer to kings but, at midlife, in ill health and straining to keep an audience’s attention. Set amid royal intrigue, theater scandals, and political conspiracy, Every Valley is entertaining, inspiring, unforgettable.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780385548267","publication_date":"20241029","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"every-valley","subtitle":"The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah","title":"Every Valley"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS037050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"18th-Century History","score":0.7042,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS010020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Western European History","score":0.6907,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS015070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"20th-Century Britain","score":0.6832,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS037050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"18th-Century History","score":0.7042,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS010020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Western European History","score":0.6907,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS015070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"20th-Century Britain","score":0.6832,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO004000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Musicians' Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037050","confidence_band":"high","label":"18th-Century History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MUS006000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Classical","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"18th-Century History","score":0.7042,"slug":"18th-century-history"},{"label":"Western European History","score":0.6907,"slug":"western-european-history"},{"label":"20th-Century Britain","score":0.6832,"slug":"20th-century-britain"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy 18th-Century History","Good for readers interested in book club","Good for fans of History"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Tilar J. Mazzeo"],"book_id":"9780062199232","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062199232.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":15.0681,"title":"The Hotel on Place Vendome","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062199232"},{"authors":["Christopher Hill"],"book_id":"9780141993133","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141993133.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":11.1131,"title":"The World Turned Upside Down","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141993133"},{"authors":["Charles King"],"book_id":"9780525432326","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525432326.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":10.471,"title":"Gods of the Upper Air","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525432326"},{"authors":["John Lee","Erik Larson","Random House Audio"],"book_id":"9780385348737","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780385348737.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":10.3327,"title":"The Splendid and the Vile","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780385348737"},{"authors":["Paul Strathern"],"book_id":"9780553386141","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780553386141.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":10.2652,"title":"The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780553386141"},{"authors":["Stephen Greenblatt"],"book_id":"9780393343403","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393343403.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":10.2545,"title":"The Swerve","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393343403"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.0914,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:easter gifts"],"label":"Easter","score":0.0753,"slug":"easter"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Book Club, Easter.","Reading lane: 18th Century History and Western European History.","Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":1113,"goodreads_reviews_count":242,"quality_score":0.9173}}