The Virgin Blue
Our Thoughts
Ms. Chevalier definitely has the ability to create images that stick with you, and some of the more horrific ones from this parallel story of a young woman in modern day France, tracking down her family’s history during the anti-Catholic struggles of 16th century France, and the story of that family will linger with you long after you put this book down.
Fiction
Penguin
June 24, 2003
320
Meet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin—two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy. When Ella and her husband move to a small town in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family of her own. Village life turns out to be less idyllic than she expected, however, and a peculiar dream of the color blue propels her on a quest to uncover her family's French ancestry. As the novel unfolds—alternating between Ella's story and that of Isabelle du Moulin four hundred years earlier—a common thread emerges that unexpectedly links the two women. Part detective story, part historical fiction, The Virgin Blue is a novel of passion and intrigue that compels readers to the very last page.
