Elusive Liberty

The woman immortalized as the Statue of Liberty comes to life in this "refreshingly different and well researched" novel of nineteenth century France (Beryl Bainbridge, author of The Dressmaker).

France, 1867. The elite of the world have come to Paris for the Great Exhibition, where they can enjoy the sophistication of the French Empire of Napoleon III. At the Imperial court, young Jeanne-Emilie de Lamont meets the man who will change her life: Frederic Bartholdi, the Republican sculptor who finds in her the inspiration for his greatest creation.

When France and Prussia go to war, Emilie's world is thrown into turmoil. As Bismarck's army surrounds Paris, she sees a side of the city—and of herself—she never before imagined. While Paris reels under the twin blows of war and revolution, Frederic's hopes for his Statue of Liberty are under threat. It will take a new continent, and an old dream, to save it. But can he save the girl who was Liberty?

A sweeping historical epic, Elusive Liberty takes the reader from the splendor of the Great Paris Exhibition to the Pyramids of Egypt, from the Franco-Prussian War to Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition in 1876.

"An exciting talent." —Beryl Bainbridge, author of Master Georgie