Fallen for France: A Novel

An exquisite Arabian mare. A small boy leaving home in colonial North Africa. A young woman in France fighting to survive World War I. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ride of Her Life braids a sweeping novel of love, war, empire, and the power of kindness in a world descending into darkness.

“From Morocco to the Western Front, this thrilling saga is both sweeping and intimate.”—Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War

“Fallen for France has everything—wartime intrigue, exotic locations, and beautifully flawed characters. Prepare to be swept away.”—Susan Meissner, author of A Map to Paradise

Beddou is six years old when he is sent off to apprentice far from his High Atlas village in Morocco. His mother gives him six amber beads to help him find his way home. That same month, a magnificent filly is born in Fes, in the splendor of the Sultan’s palace. For a brief, golden time, the mare belongs to the boy. But Beddou’s heart is broken when a soldier steals his horse and disappears into France just as the Great War roars to a start. Finding her seems impossible, but he vows to try.

Estelle, a young woman in France, finds a distressed Arabian mare wandering alone in the meadow behind her house. She is determined to look after this radiant creature just as tenderly as she cares for her vulnerable younger brother. But soon her world is torn apart, and she loses both the horse and her brother. She will spend the rest of the war searching for both.

Thomas is an Englishman hardened by his experience as a wartime veterinarian in France. He finds the mare and promises to protect her—and the woman who once loved her—but he doubts his own ability to keep anyone safe. As the pathways of the unforgettable mare and the boy’s desperate search intertwine, the separate strands of these strangers’ journeys converge, propelling them to make momentous choices that will change the course of their lives.

Spanning Morocco and France in the shadow of World War I, Fallen for France follows unforgettable characters whose lives are bound by a magnificent horse and a string of amber beads.

Elizabeth Letts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, which won the PEN Award for Research Nonfiction, and most recently, The Ride of Her Life. She is also the author of the novels Finding Dorothy, Quality of Care, and Family Planning. She lives in Maryland and North Michigan.