The French Winemaker’s Daughter

A Novel

Loretta Ellsworth

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780063371811
• eBook ISBN: 9780063371828
• Subtopic: Literature General

Set during World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, family, and loyalty told in in the voices of two women, generations apart, who find themselves connected by a mysterious and valuable bottle of wine stolen by the Nazis.

1942. Seven-year-old Martine hides in an armoire when the Nazis come to take her father away. Pinned to her dress is a note with her aunt’s address in Paris, and in her arms, a bottle of wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her papa. When they are finally gone, the terrified young girl drops the bottle and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris.

But when Martine arrives in the city, her aunt is nowhere to be found. Without a place to go, the girl wanders the streets and eventually falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot, where Sister Ada finds her and takes her to the abbey, and watches over her.

1990. Charlotte, a commercial airline pilot, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. Successfully bidding on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during the Second World War, Henri gives Charlotte a seemingly inferior bottle he finds inside the box. Cleaning the label, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her on a quest to find the origins of this unusual—and very valuable—bottle of wine, a quest that will take her back fifty years into the past. . . .

A powerful tale of love, war, and family, The French Winemaker’s Daughter is an emotionally resonant tale of two women whose fates are intertwined across time. Loretta Ellsworth’s evocative and poignant page-turner will linger in the heart, and make you think about luck, connection, and the meaning of loyalty.

 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Chapter One: The Armoire
• Chapter Two: Hôtel Drouot
• Chapter Three: L’amour
• Chapter Four: Madame Moreau
• Chapter Five: Escape
• Chapter Six: The Right Frequency
• Chapter Seven: The Appraisal
• Chapter Eight: Tante Anna
• Chapter Nine: Sister Ada
• Chapter Ten: Bourgogne
• Chapter Eleven: Madame’s Memory
• Chapter Twelve: The Abbey
• Chapter Thirteen: Learning to Read
• Chapter Fourteen: Secrets
• Chapter Fifteen: The Winery
• Chapter Sixteen: The Picture
• Chapter Seventeen: Cat and Mouse
• Chapter Eighteen: André
• Chapter Nineteen: The Resistance
• Chapter Twenty: More Wineries
• Chapter Twenty-One: Invitation
• Chapter Twenty-Two: Fall Festival
• Chapter Twenty-Three: The Village
• Chapter Twenty-Four: Gabriel
• Chapter Twenty-Five: Immersion
• Chapter Twenty-Six: A Predicament
• Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Orphans and the Harvest
• Chapter Twenty-Eight: Sent Away
• Chapter Twenty-Nine: Toxic Nostalgia
• Chapter Thirty: Learning a Lesson
• Chapter Thirty-One: A Visit to an Abbey
• Chapter Thirty-Two: Joie de Vivre
• Chapter Thirty-Three: A Proposal
• Chapter Thirty-Four: Encounter with a German Soldier
• Chapter Thirty-Five: A Break-In
• Chapter Thirty-Six: Love Is in the Air
• Chapter Thirty-Seven: An Envelope and a Bunny
• Chapter Thirty-Eight: Bombs Fill the Sky
• Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Fire
• Chapter Forty: Coincidence or Fate?
• Chapter Forty-One: Sérendipité
• Chapter Forty-Two: Faith and Hope
• Chapter Forty-Three: A Hero’s Parade
• Chapter Forty-Four: A New Life
• Chapter Forty-Five: Destiny
• Chapter Forty-Six: Love in Any Language
• Chapter Forty-Seven: A Forfeiture
• Chapter Forty-Eight: Where It All Began
• Author’s Note
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Also by Loretta Ellsworth
• Copyright
• About the Publisher