Overview

'Amandine is gentle and perceptive . there are surprises to jolt your comfort zone and the conclusion is the biggest jolt of all.' Courier Mail 'A classic, expertly wrought novel of love, loss, and tangled loyalties, Amandine is also a banquet of sumptuous imagery and delicious historical detail.' - Chandra Prasad, author of On Borrowed Wings '. balances heartbreak, loneliness, fear and hope with aplomb. ' Publishers Weekly Marlena de Blasi brings her luminous prose to the world of fiction with this remarkable debut novel. Set against the backdrop of Europe as it moves inexorably toward World War II, Amandine follows a young orphan's journey in search of her heritage. The story opens in Krakow in 1931, as a baby girl is conceived out of wedlock. The child's grandmother, a countess, believes she is protecting her daughter when she claims that the baby didn't survive. In truth, however, she deposits the infant at a remote convent in the French countryside, leaving her in the care of a young governess named Solange. But even Solange's unconditional love cannot protect Amandine and eventually Solange is forced to choose between the cruel life of the convent and the terrors of war looming outside its doors. With a purseful of worthless francs, the two flee north toward Solange's childhood home. But what should have been a two-day journey by train becomes a perilous odyssey across Occupied France. Amandine's mother, meanwhile, still mourns and dreams of the child she thinks she lost forever. This epic novel winds its way toward a dramatic and compelling conclusion, as mother and daughter draw ever nearer. Amandine is a sumptuous tale of persistent hope and unexpected love.

Full Product Details

9781742377551

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Reviews

'A classic, expertly wrought novel of love, loss, and tangled loyalties, Amandine is also a banquet of sumptuous imagery and delicious historical detail.' - Chandra Prasad, author of On Borrowed Wings.

Author Information

Marlena de Blasi is the bestselling author of A Thousand Days in Venice, Tuscan Secrets, An Umbrian Love Story and That Summer in Sicily. She has been a chef, a journalist, a food and wine consultant and a restaurant critic. She is also the author of two cookbooks of Italian food. She and her husband, Fernando, moved from Venice to San Casciano where Tuscan Secrets was written and now live in Orvieto, the setting for An Umbrian Love Story.

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