Pandora's Bottle »

Joanne Sydney Lessner has written the book and lyrics to several musicals, including the cult hit Fermat's Last Tango, and Einstein's Dreams, based on the celebrated novel by Alan Lightman. Ms. Lessner's plays include Critical Mass, which won the 2009 Heiress Productions Playwriting Competition and is slated for a New York production in the fall of 2010, and Crossing Lines, a finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference. She is a regular contributing writer to Opera News and holds a BA in music, summa cum laude, from Yale University. Also active as a singer and actor, she has performed on and off Broadway. Ms. Lessner was raised in the Hudson Valley and currently resides in New York City with her husband and two children. Pandora's Bottle is her first novel.

What happens when you pin your hopes on a single event—and it all goes terribly wrong? When that event is the uncorking of a fabled bottle of 1787 Château Lafite once owned by Thomas Jefferson, the repercussions prove emotional, financial, theatrical and, in every way, unexpected. In this provocative tale of hubris and redemption, aspiration and perseverance, first-time novelist Joanne Sydney Lessner provides a fun, fast-paced glimpse into the world of fine wine, from the whirl of New York City haute cuisine to the historic vineyards of the Hudson Valley.

When financier Sy Hampton purchases this legendary bottle—which, through a quirk of preservation, may yet be drinkable—he shocks the wine community by choosing to uncork it privately with a female companion, rather than share it at a special public event. Sy intends the evening to be a quiet reassertion of his virility in the throes of middle age, but for ambitious restaurateur Annette Lecocq, the event offers an irresistible opportunity for much-needed publicity. Their competing agendas are not the only things to collide on the fateful night. Caught in the crossfire are Tripp Macgregor, a waiter on the verge of his long-awaited Broadway debut, and Valentina D'Ambrosio, the beautiful but unworldly working girl from Brooklyn Sy hopes to impress.