An aristocratic French family, a legendary château, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire.

La Côte d’Azur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinières, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent château and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debt—and almost as many questions...

Paris, 1944: A bright, young British office clerk, Constance Carruthers, is sent undercover to Paris to be part of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during the climax of the Nazi occupation. Separated from her contacts in the Resistance, she soon stumbles into the heart of a prominent family who regularly entertain elite members of the German military even as they plot to liberate France. But in a city rife with collaborators and rebels, Constance’s most difficult decision may be determining whom to trust with her heart.

As Emilie discovers what really happened to her family during the war and finds a connection to Constance much closer than she suspects, the château itself may provide the clues that unlock the mysteries of her past, present, and future.

Here is a dazzling novel of intrigue and passion from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs is a masterpiece by Marcel Pagnol, capturing a Provencal legend of vengeance exacted by a mysterious sheperdess. This powerful story is rich with twists and ramifications, setting an idealistic city man against two secretive and deceitful Provencal countrymen.

Pagnol brings to life the Provencal countryside with a dramatist's sense of place, ambience, and character. It's a superbly realized story of struggle for life, crime and punishment, betrayal and revenge, and judgment and forgiveness. This edition, illustrated with images from the acclaimed film adaptation by Claude Berri, presents Pagnol's enduring story in W.E. van Heyningen's exact and sensitive translation.

Biblical in its cadences, epic in its sweep to destiny, and old-fashioned in development of character and plot, this saga charts the destruction of a Provencal family.