First published 2011
Bea Nightingale teaches English to indifferent high school students in the Bronx when her tyrannical brother Marvin demands she go to Paris. His son Julian has abandoned business for writing, living with Lili, a Romanian woman ten years older. Marvin wants Julian back in California immediately. Bea secretly sends Julian's sister Iris instead, hoping the promising chemistry student can succeed where she might fail. But Iris has her own reasons for escaping their father's iron control. In Paris, Bea discovers a city scarred by war yet alive with possibility. She finds herself drawn into the lives of Julian and the mysterious Lili, whose past holds secrets that challenge everything Bea thought she understood. As family loyalties clash with personal desires, Bea must choose between her brother's expectations and the awakening of feelings she has buried for years. The city transforms her from dutiful sister to someone willing to change not just her own life, but the lives of others.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Bronx, California, Paris
Period: 20th-century
272 pages · Paperback · Atlantic Books