Nemesis and the Swan
by
Lindsay K. Brandy
Blackstone Publishing 2020
ISBN 978-1-09-405947-1
Nineteen-year-old Helene languishes in a squalid French prison tormented by questions she cannot answer. Why was she arrested? Who could have made a wrongful accusation against her? And if so, why?
Together with Helene, we attempt to unravel the mystery of her imprisonment as we follow the journey of her life that led to this moment.
As a child, Helene, an aristocrat in revolutionary Paris, absorbed ideas of liberty and an egalitarian society from her governess. Words and ideas that created in her heart a different life from the one she had been living, and which she thought possible if only given the chance.
Perhaps such idyllic hopes and dreams are what caused her to fall in love with a commoner.
But how to deal with an unstable mother who cares nothing for her? Or a father, who although affectionate, views her as a means of securing his own wealth and maintaining his lifestyle via an arranged marriage for his daughter to a rich but base man?
To complicate matters further, she discovers a murder mystery within her family that may put her own life at risk.
When an acquaintance, who may be able to help set her free, visits her in prison, Helene pours out her fears and reveals all about her life. But in such perilous times, how can one know who to trust? What awaits her next? Freedom or the guillotine?
A riveting tale of the revolutionary days in Paris told from the perspective of a young woman, the author asks us to consider the importance of examining the way we each draw lines between good and bad, right and left, and us and them.
Nemesis and the Swan is a book you will want to read again and again, and again.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on April 22nd!
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