First published 2016
Martha "Patsy" Jefferson becomes her father's closest confidante after her mother dies. She travels with Thomas Jefferson to Paris when he serves as American minister to France. At the glittering French court, she witnesses the early days of revolution and discovers her father's relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman her own age. Patsy falls in love with William Short, her father's protégé and an abolitionist who plans a European career. She faces an agonizing choice between marrying William and remaining her father's devoted daughter. She chooses duty over love, returning to Virginia to marry a man Jefferson selects. As she raises eleven children, family secrets emerge during Jefferson's presidency. Patsy must decide how much she will sacrifice to shield her father's reputation. Her choices shape not only Jefferson's legacy but the future of the young nation.
Genres: family, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, biographical-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: duty-over-love, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France, Paris, Virginia
Period: Early American Republic, French Revolution
624 pages · ebook · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: slavery