Synopsis "The Chateau (in English)"
In The Chateau, the first book of the series, we meet Anton Kujowski, disgruntled teacher, passionate artist. His friends call him a "Renaissance Man". While flattered, he feels a diagnosis of ADHD would be more accurate. He's a wanderer, both in mind and in spirit. He's restless, talented, charming, and just naïve enough to get caught up inevitably in the lives and problems of other people. At the beginning of The Chateau, we find Anton in southern France painting and beginning to make a name for himself in the village of St. Cyr. A year earlier, during an after school meeting, he told a disgruntled mother where to shove it, walked out, quit, and that night randomly picked France as a place to renew and to hopefully live the dream of being free, of becoming the artist that he felt he could be. Now, at the end of the year in France he's happy, but he misses a few people back home. Coming across an ad for a summer rental of a remote chateau, he contacts several friends and asks them to split the cost. Then Anais, the beautiful, and somewhat mysterious, owner of his favourite bistro Le Papillon, walks over to his outdoor table as he is sketching the scene across the street. She introduces herself and commissions him on the spot to do a large painting of her in the nude. Can life get any better? Later, he meets Marie, the grandmother of Anais and is commissioned to do a formal painting of her. And this is where the story becomes two tales. Each time she sits for her portrait, she tells the story of her life during the war with the intent of unburdening her soul of a terrible secret that she has been carrying for decades. Captivated by the story of her life under the Nazis, Anton has no idea how Marie's past is going to impact his own in the present. Looted Nazi art, an eighty-five year old member of The Hitler Youth, an eclectic group of friends all with their own needs and foibles, intrigue, suspense mixed with emotions and booze. It isn't the idyllic summer Anton had planned. He should have known better by now.
