THE CITY OF TEARS

Minou turned around and watched as Paris got smaller and smaller behind them. She wondered if they were merely postponing the hour of their death and if, at this moment, she cared . . . June 1572: for ten years the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless have seen lives lost, and the country is tearing itself apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty. Now a precarious peace is in the balance: a royal wedding has been forged by Catherine de' Medici, an alliance between the Catholic Crown and the Huguenot king, Henri of Navarre. It is a marriage that could see France united at last . . .Meanwhile in Puivert, an invitation has arrived for Minou Joubert and her family to attend the historic wedding in Paris. But, torn between the safety of her family and the chance to bear witness to this momentous occasion, she fails to notice an assassin in the woodlands watching her every move . . .And in Paris, the Joubert family's oldest enemy, Vidal - still in pursuit of a relic that will change the course of history - shall also be in attendance. But what they cannot yet know is that within days of the marriage, thousands will lie dead in the streets and Minou's beloved family will not have escaped . . .A breath-taking novel of revenge, persecution and loss, sweeping from Paris and Chartres to the city of tears itself, Amsterdam, this is a story of one family's fight to stay together - and find each other - through the devastating tides of history . . .