From New York Times bestselling author Charles King comes the moving, true story behind one of the best-known pieces of music ever written: Handel’s Messiah.

But George Frideric Handel’s work of triumphant joy was born in an age of anxiety. Britain, in the early Enlightenment, was a place of astonishing creativity but also the seat of an empire mired in war and conflict. Against this turbulent background, King has crafted a cinematic drama of the entangled lives that shaped a masterpiece of hope.

In Every Valley, he presents a dissenter stirred to action by ancient prophecy; an actress plagued by an abusive husband and public scorn; a penniless sea captain determined to rescue the city’s abandoned infants; and an African Muslim held captive in the colonies hatching a dangerous plan to get 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.

Weaving historical events with personal stories, King pulls back the curtain to reveal the scandal and intrigue, opportunists and thugs, deep pain and soaring optimism that show how flawed individuals and unrelated lives came together to produce the brilliance that is Messiah.