The Château

The Château
Author: Paul Goldberg
Publisher: Picador
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2018-02-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250116104

"We have proverb in Florida...You know why it's good to be on beach?" Bill smiles, but says nothing. He wants the guy to keep talking. "Because on beach you are surrounded by idiots on only three sides." "And on the remaining side you have what?" asks Bill. "Sharks..." Paul Goldberg, the acclaimed author of The Yid, takes us behind the scenes of a Florida condo board election, delivering a wild spin on Miami Beach, petty crime, Jewish identity, and life in Trump's America. It is January 2017 and Bill has hit rock bottom. Yesterday, he was William M. Katzenelenbogen, successful science reporter at The Washington Post. But things have taken a turn. Fired from his job, aimless, with exactly $1,219.37 in his checking account, he learns that his college roommate, a plastic surgeon known far and wide as the “Butt God of Miami Beach,” has fallen to his death under salacious circumstances. With nothing to lose, Bill boards a flight for Florida’s Gold Coast, ready to begin his own investigation—a last ditch attempt to revive his career. There’s just one catch: Bill’s father, Melsor. Melsor Yakovlevich Katzenelenbogen—poet, literary scholar, political dissident, small-time-crook—is angling for control of the condo board at the Château Sedan Neuve, a crumbling high-rise in Hollywood, Florida, populated mostly by Russian Jewish immigrants. The current board is filled with fraudsters levying “special assessments” on residents, and Melsor will use any means necessary to win the board election. And who better to help him than his estranged son? As he did in The Yid, Paul Goldberg has taken something we think we know and turned it on its ear. Featuring a colorful cast of characters, The Château guarantees that you will never look at condo boards, crime, kleptocracy, vodka, Fascism, or Florida the same way again.

Chateau of Secrets

Chateau of Secrets
Author: Melanie Dobson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2014-05-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1476746125

A courageous young noblewoman risks her life to hide French resistance fighters; seventy years later, her granddaughter visits the family’s abandoned chateau and uncovers shocking secrets from the past. Gisèle Duchant guards a secret that could cost her life. Tunnels snake through the hill under her family’s medieval chateau in Normandy. Now, with Hitler’s army bearing down, her brother and several friends are hiding in the tunnels, resisting the German occupation of France. But when German soldiers take over the family’s château, Gisèle is forced to host them as well—while harboring the resistance fighters right below their feet. Taking in a Jewish friend’s baby, she convinces the Nazis that it is her child, ultimately risking everything for the future of the child. When the German officers begin to suspect her deception, an unlikely hero rescues both her and the child. A present day story weaves through the past one as Chloe Sauver, Gisèle’s granddaughter, arrives in Normandy. After calling off her engagement with a political candidate, Chloe pays a visit to the chateau to escape publicity and work with a documentary filmmaker, Riley, who has uncovered a fascinating story about Jews serving in Hitler’s army. Riley wants to research Chloe’s family history and the lives that were saved in the tunnels under their house in Normandy. Chloe is floored—her family isn’t Jewish, for one thing, and she doesn’t know anything about tunnels or the history of the house. But as she begins to explore the dark and winding passageways beneath the chateau, nothing can prepare her for the shock of what she and Riley discover… With emotion and intrigue, Melanie Dobson brings World War II France to life in this beautiful novel about war, family, sacrifice, and the secrets of the past.

The Glass Château

The Glass Château
Author: Stephen P. Kiernan
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2023-06-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1443470953

From the critically acclaimed author of Universe of Two and The Baker’s Secret, a novel of hope, healing and the redemptive power of art, set against the turmoil of post–World War II France and inspired by the life of Marc Chagall One month after the end of World War II, amid the jubilation in the streets of France, are throngs of people stunned by the recovery work ahead. Every bridge, road and rail line, every church and school and hospital, has been destroyed. Disparate factions—from Communists, to Resistance fighters, to federalists, to those who supported appeasement of the Nazis—must somehow unite to rebuild their devastated country. Asher lost his family during the war, and in revenge served as an assassin in the Resistance. Burdened by grief and guilt, he wanders through the blasted countryside, shocked by what has become of his life. When he arrives at the Château Guerin, all he seeks is a decent meal. Instead he finds a sanctuary, an oasis. The people there are every bit as damaged as he is, but they are calming themselves and recovering, inch by inch, by turning sand into glass, and glass into windows for the bombed cathedrals of France. It’s a volatile place, and these former warriors manage their trauma in different ways. But they are helped by women full of courage and affection. Asher turns out to have a gift for making windows. He decides to hide the fact that he is Jewish so the devout Catholics who own the château will not expel him. As the secrets of the château’s residents become known one by one, they experience more heated conflict and greater challenges. And as Asher kindles his talents for glasswork, his recovery will lead the way for them all.

The Chateau by the River

The Chateau by the River
Author: Chloé Duval
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2018-12-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1516100913

A faded photograph will lead one young woman to a ruined French castle where she will discover the truth of her own identity . . . and the enduring mystery of love. Traveling to France on business, Alexandra Dawson has decided to seize the opportunity to explore a mysterious piece of her own heritage—a half-burnt picture of a woman who looks eerily like her, taken more than a hundred years ago in a local castle. In the charming rural village of Chandeniers, she discovers something else too—the gruff, ruggedly good-looking heir of the crumbled chateau. Eric Lagnel is completely uninterested in Alex’s queries, until he realizes that she may have stumbled on a way to save the building. Their unlikely partnership is a surprise. But as Alex slowly unravels the secrets of her great-great-grandmother’s photograph—and the true history of the chateau—she begins to understand that no one is ever prepared for the ways love can heal old wounds and open the hardest hearts.

Château D'Oex

Château D'Oex
Author: Ernest Dudley Lampen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1910
Genre: Château d'Oex (Switzerland)
ISBN:

Analyse: Index: p. 289-291.

The Women of Chateau Lafayette

The Women of Chateau Lafayette
Author: Stephanie Dray
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1984802135

The USA Today Bestseller! Recommended by Oprah Magazine ∙ Cosmopolitan ∙ PopSugar ∙ SheReads ∙ Parade ∙ and more! An epic saga from New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray based on the true story of an extraordinary castle in the heart of France and the remarkable women bound by its legacy. Most castles are protected by men. This one by women. A founding mother... 1774. Gently-bred noblewoman Adrienne Lafayette becomes her husband, the Marquis de Lafayette’s political partner in the fight for American independence. But when their idealism sparks revolution in France and the guillotine threatens everything she holds dear, Adrienne must renounce the complicated man she loves, or risk her life for a legacy that will inspire generations to come. A daring visionary... 1914. Glittering New York socialite Beatrice Chanler is a force of nature, daunted by nothing—not her humble beginnings, her crumbling marriage, or the outbreak of war. But after witnessing the devastation in France firsthand, Beatrice takes on the challenge of a lifetime: convincing America to fight for what's right. A reluctant resistor... 1940. French school-teacher and aspiring artist Marthe Simone has an orphan's self-reliance and wants nothing to do with war. But as the realities of Nazi occupation transform her life in the isolated castle where she came of age, she makes a discovery that calls into question who she is, and more importantly, who she is willing to become. Intricately woven and powerfully told, The Women of Chateau Lafayette is a sweeping novel about duty and hope, love and courage, and the strength we take from those who came before us.