A young peasant boy from a village along the Seine finds his life upended by the Franco-Prussian War, forcing him to flee to Algeria where he discovers the darker arts of deception, romance, and survival. Daphne du Maurier traces Julius Levy's transformation from a wide-eyed dreamer reaching toward the clouds to a cunning man navigating the complexities of a foreign land. Through vivid storytelling, this novel explores how tragedy reshapes ambition and innocence into something far more worldly and complex.
