Format: eBook

The first new novel in four years from the beloved superstar author of Sarah’s Key, a heartbreaking and uplifting story of family secrets and devastating disaster, set against a Paris backdrop, fraught with revelations, and resolutions

Linden Malegarde has come home to Paris from the United States. It has been years since the whole family was all together. Now the Malegarde family is gathering for Paul, Linden’s father’s 70th birthday.

Each member of the Malegarde family is on edge, holding their breath, afraid one wrong move will shatter their delicate harmony. Paul, the quiet patriarch, an internationally-renowned arborist obsessed with his trees and little else, has always had an uneasy relationship with his son. Lauren, his American wife, is determined that the weekend celebration will be a success. Tilia, Linden’s blunt older sister, projects an air of false fulfillment. And Linden himself, the youngest, uncomfortable in his own skin, never quite at home no matter where he lives—an American in France and a Frenchman in the U.S.—still fears that, despite his hard-won success as a celebrated photographer, he will always be a disappointment to his parents.

Their hidden fears and secrets slowly unravel as the City of Light undergoes a stunning natural disaster, and the Seine bursts its banks and floods the city. All members of the family will have to fight to keep their unity against tragic circumstances. In this profound and intense novel of love and redemption, de Rosnay demonstrates all of her writer’s skills both as an incredible storyteller but also as a soul seeker.

Review:

Vivid, captivating, and melancholic!

The Rain Watcher is a moving, beautiful portrayal of a city in turmoil and a family struggling to understand, accept, and outwardly show compassion and love for each other.

The writing is impassioned and eloquent. The characters are empathetic, distressed, and genuine. And the plot is a mesmeric, foreboding tale set both in the present day and mid-1900s about life, loss, love, family dynamics, secrets, determination, hope, sacrifice, and the desolation and destruction mother nature can reap.

The Rain Watcher is a wonderful blend of historical facts, intriguing fiction, and palpable emotion. It’s a nostalgic, heartbreaking, consuming tale that reminds us of the complex relationship that can exist between a father and son and highlights once again de Rosnay’s insight and passion for La Ville-Lumière.

This novel is available now.

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