Description: After sisters Laure and Marie learn of their parents' plan to sell the family's summer retreat, L'Agapanthe, they devise a scheme for attracting a wealthy suitor who can afford to purchase the estate. For the sisters, it has become a necessary part of their character, their lifestyle, and their past. L'Agapanthe is the perfect venue to exercise proper etiquette and intellect, though not all its visitors are socially savvyespecially when it's a matter of understanding the relationship between old money and the nouveau riche. And so the comedy of manners begins.
Brief description:
Cécile David-Weill is French and American. She began her career in publishing at the prestigious Éditions Gallimard before taking over editorial directorship of Éditions Balland and then setting up her own publishing company, Éditions Cavatines. She published her first novel, Béguin, under the name of Cécile de la Baume, which was released in an English translation titled Crush. She is also the author of Femme de and a regular contributor to the online French news magazine Le Point, with a column titled Letters from New York. She was born in New York, where she currently lives.
Review Quotes:
"Ah, L'Agapanthe, that beauteous summer home in the south of France where wealth is without question and the discreet, proper manners of another era predominate. Laure and Marie have summered there since childhood with their parents, Flokie and Edmond Ettinguer, enjoying carefully arranged weekends (no journalists) that are so legendary new guests need not be given the address...Deceptively charming and delightful, this novel by the French American David-Weill portrays class issues and changing mores with the kind of intelligent taste that would make the Ettinguers proud."
-- "Library Journal"