1940, in the Nazi-occupied city of Rouen, France: Despite Germany's stranglehold on the French, Benjamin Cohen, an introverted but musically talented adolescent, alters the course of his life when he defies his father to study the fifty-five bell carillon in the Catholic cathedral. A coming-of-age epistolary novel, this story explores wartime dynamics between Catholic and Jewish, boy and girl, father and son, and two estranged brothers on their journeys through love, tragedy and war. Can Benjamin's budding mastery of the carillon and his love affair with the troubled novitiate nun, Marie-Noëlle, give him le courage he needs to perform the one act that can save his people from Nazi arrest and earn back the respect from his father he craves? Or will it doom them all? Adventurous and unforgettable, filled with charm and unsettling alarm, this novel will leave its impact on readers of all ages.
