The Foundling Boy
When Jeanne and Albert Arnaud find an infant on their doorstep, they decide to raise him as their son. Born in 1919, Jean enters a world haunted by recent war. His adoptive parents are caretakers at La Sauveté, the du Courseau family’s Normandy estate. The du Courseaus have their own struggles, for unfaithful husband Antoine and social-climbing wife Marie-Thérèse are the parents of three troubled children. Geneviève, the sickly eldest, is a mysterious prince’s companion; Michel, artistic, violent, and spiteful, detests Jean; and Antoinette is a promiscuous temptress. In 1936, as Antoine loses the family fortune, Jean begins an exploration of Europe. He meets, among others, a young Nazi in Italy, Antoine’s former mistress, and a man pretending to be a priest. As he travels, Jean maintains his love for childhood friend Chantal de Malemort, fearing she will never agree to be with him. The descriptions of food and landscape alone will keep the reader engrossed. Award-winning novelist Déon delights with this family saga, in which are interwoven glimpses of France’s political history. --Jackie Thomas-Kennedy