The School of Mirrors will be published in February 2022 in Canada (Penguin Random House) and the US (William Morrow). In my publishers’ words it is:

 A scintillating, gorgeously written historical novel about a mother and a daughter in eighteenth-century France, beginning with decadence and palace intrigue at Versailles and ending in an explosive new era of revolution.

The novel is a departure from my previous books. Unlike the heroine of The Chosen Maiden, the mother and daughter in The School of Mirrors are imaginary characters, inspired by short mentions in 18th century sources. Most intriguing mentions, too, concerning a secret house in the town of Versailles and a midwife with a mission.

The secret house was Deer Park where Louis XV’s servants kept attractive lower-class girls to satisfy their master’s fleeting fancy. We know that the girls were brought to Deer Park ostensibly to be trained as ladies’ maids, told that their “master” was a Polish count, a cousin of the queen, who kept an apartment at Versailles. We know that they disappeared as swiftly as they appeared, married off or sent back home, their lives mostly lost to history.

The French midwife with a mission was Madame Angélique du Coudray who revolutionized French teaching of midwifery and empowered generations of young women, providing them with opportunities, they wouldn’t have otherwise had.

I hope you will reach for The School of Mirrors to find out how these two stories merged in my imagination. How my 18th century heroines—Deer Park girls, midwives, and revolutionary citizens—navigate the tumultuous years of the French Revolution that exposed their secrets, shook their world, and forced them to re-examine their place in it.

 The School of Mirrors