First published 2013
The de Cygne family watches Notre Dame's stones rise into the sky, beginning a saga that will span eight centuries. Their descendants navigate the treacherous court of Cardinal Richelieu, where a wrong word means death. Later generations dance at Versailles before revolution tears their world apart. The family endures the Paris Commune's barricades, finds new life during the Belle Époque among the impressionist painters, and faces the trenches of the First World War. In the 1920s, they drink alongside American expatriates at Les Deux Magots. When Nazi boots march down the Champs-Élysées, family members choose between collaboration and resistance. The 1968 student uprising brings new challenges to their door. Through each era, the family's loves, betrayals, and secrets intertwine with Paris itself, revealing how ordinary people shape history while history shapes them.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, multi-generational, sweeping-epic
Setting: Notre Dame, Paris, Versailles, Champs-Élysées
Period: 8th Century, 20th Century, 1920s, 1960s
809 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: war