WHISPERING IN FRENCH: A Novel

 

Home is the last place Kate expected to find herself…

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Witty and sophisticated, rich in history and culture,

Sophia Nash’s first contemporary fiction novel vividly evokes both its idyllic French setting and the universal themes of self-forgiveness and rebuilding in a story as touching as it is wise.

 

As a child, Kate Hamilton was packed off each summer to her grandfather’s ivy-covered villa in southern France. That ancestral home, named Madeleine Marie, is now crumbling, and it falls to Kate—regarded as the most responsible and practical member of her family—to return to the rugged, beautiful seaside Basque region to confront her grandfather and convince him to sell. But Kate’s own life is in as much disarray as Madeleine Marie. Her marriage has ended, and she’s convinced she has failed her teenaged daughter, Lily, in unforgiveable ways. While delving into colorful family history and the consequences of

her own choices, Kate reluctantly agrees to provide professional counseling to Major Edward Soames, a British military officer suffering from post-traumatic stress. Breaking through his shell, and dealing with idiosyncratic locals intent on viewing her as an Americanized outsider, will give Kate new insight into who—and where—she wants to be. The answers will prove as surprising as the secrets that reside in the centuries-old villa. Yet it’s the enigmatic animals, living on the property’s grounds, who possess the wisdom of the ages.