From the author ofThe Gustav Sonata

This is the summer that Lewis Little, precocious thirteen-year-old, is spending in Paris with his mother, Alice. Alice is translating the latest medieval romance by Valentina Gavrilovich, the bestselling and exotic Russian émigré, Lewis is there to make his first acquaintance with one of the greatest cities in the world; neither can foresee the momentous events that lie in wait for them. Valentina slowly casts a spell over Lewis, but when her past begins to encroach on all their lives and, as this enchanted world is gradually lost, Lewis is driven on a terrifying quest.

Over a million Rose Tremain books sold

A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotionIndependent I

There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose TremainIrish Times

Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effectThe Times

Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists Salman Rushdie

Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness Marcel Theroux,Guardian

Rose Tremains novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won several awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award(The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories),the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music&Silence) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Sacred Country). Her most recent novel,The Gustav Sonata, was aSunday TimesTop Ten Bestseller. It won the National Jewish Book Award in the US, the South Bank Sky Arts Award in the UK and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

www.rosetremain.co.uk