A deep bond of love severed. An impossible decision. Will she break a powerful promise to find her way back to happiness?
The Pyrénées, France, 1939. Twenty-year-old Sylvie Laget is in love. With war looming, she pledges her heart to a young man on a neighboring farm and rebels against her religious upbringing by consummating their relationship. When her lover leaves to fight the Nazis, she poses as a nun, working with the resistance (the Maquis) to get Allied pilots out of France.
After receiving news of her beloved’s death, grief drives her to take her vows and become a nun in earnest. But when a tragic miscommunication shatters her universe, she must decide where her faith truly lies…
Will her country’s bloody battle destroy Sylvie’s spirit, or will her unexpected path lead to the future she craves?
Advance Praise:
…a powerful, heartbreaking novel that does justice to those who suffered under the boot of Nazi Germany and found the strength to fight their way out from underneath it…a tale of heroism accompanied by tragedy and loss…
– The Berkshire Eagle
…an “epic novel”…Brancato patiently weaves together the experiences of the heroine Sylvie Laget and those she loves. The end result achieves Brancato’s goal of creating a work of art that challenges the reader to look clearly at the atrocities of WWII, so the horrors of tyranny and fascism are not unknowingly recreated today…
– Richmond Record
…a riveting book…a story of love and of staying true to one’s beliefs. The bravery and truly heroic actions of the Maquisards, who aided in the escape of downed Allied airmen, Jews and others pursued by the Nazis, is a part of our human history that is retold here and brought to life through the fictional characters of Sylvie and Hélène. A must-read!
– Anastasia Stanmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, Berkshire Magazine
…a powerful and profound story of the ravages of war and the courage of ordinary people who rise to face the evil in their midst. Set in the harsh beauty of the foothills of the Pyrénées during the Nazi occupation of France…take[s] readers on a dramatic, suspenseful journey with a band of Resistance fighters shepherding Allied pilots and Jewish refugees to safety across the mountains…A beautifully written, complex, and layered story that both challenges our understanding of what it means to be human and offers hope that the seeds of goodness will prevail.
– Linda Cardillo, award-winning author of Love That Moves the Sun and
the First Light series
…both a highly imaginative and exhaustively researched historical novel that kept this reader glued to its pages, hooked by its page-turning suspense and rooting for its dynamic characters. Carolyn Kay Brancato has done a great honor to the real-life men and women who inspired this book and given all of us an important story of resistance and grace.
– Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
Carolyn Kay Brancato applies her forensic investigative skills to create a thoroughly researched and graphic depiction of French resistance to Nazi occupation…[the novel] describes how ordinary people handle ambiguous emotions to act with conviction…a timely reminder of the need to stand up to tyranny in the face of violence and intimidation.
– Andrew Tank, Executive Director, The Conference Board Europe, Brussels, Belgium
