Valentine House

In June 1914, Sir Anthony Valentine, a keen mountaineer, arrives with his family to spend the summer in their chalet, high in the French Alps. There, for the first time, fourteen-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work as one of the 'uglies' - village girls employed as servants and picked, it is believed, to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eye.

For Mathilde it is the start of a life-long entanglement with les anglais - strange, exciting people, far removed from the hard grind of farming. Except she soon finds the Valentines are less carefree than they appear, with a curiously absent daughter no one talks about. It will be decades - disrupted by war, accidents and a cruel betrayal - before Mathilde discovers the key to the mystery. And in 1976, the year Sir Anthony's great-great grandson comes to visit, she must decide whether to use it.

Vividly evoking the dramatic landscape that so enthrals the Valentines, this deeply involving, intriguing novel tells the story of an English family through the generations and a memorable French woman, whose lives seem worlds apart yet which become inextricably connected.

In iunie 1914, Sir Anthony Valentine, un alpinist indragostit, soseste impreuna cu familia pentru a-si petrece vara in cabana lor, in Muntii Alpi francezi. Acolo, pentru prima data, Mathilde, tanara de paisprezece ani, incepe sa lucreze ca una dintre „uratele” - fete din sat angajate ca servitoare si cules, se crede, pentru a se asigura ca nu prind ochiul calator al lui Sir Anthony. este inceputul unei incurcari de-a lungul vietii cu les anglais - oameni ciudati, incitanti, departe de grija ferma a agriculturii.