Tatiana de Rosnay captures the hearts of her readers once again with her latest release, THE HOUSE I LOVED. Set in nineteenth-century Paris, Rose Bazelet must come to terms with the monumental changes which are radically transforming the streets of Paris. But when Emperor Napoleon III decides to demolish the street where Rose's beloved home stands, she stands to lose the one tie the part of her life she cannot bear to let go of. Rose's emotional story is narrated in the form of a letter as the elderly widow writes about the loss of the house she loved to her deceased husband.

Rose's letters to her husband, Armand, begin with an introduction to the colorful residents of Rue Childebert. As Rose artfully evokes her extravagant and colorful neighbors, her old friends slowly find their way into the hearts of readers as well. As Rose and her beloved friends must part ways, you will easily identify with Rose's pain as she ponders over the fate of her dear friends who once resided on Rue Childebert.

But the house that Rose loves really tells its story as Rose recounts the happiest moments she has lived in the house. Rose recounts her unexpected courtship with her husband, Armand, whose family lived at the house on Rue Childebert since the seventeenth century. Rose also painfully remembers the loss of her son who died at a young age after an outbreak of cholera. As Rose shares her most emotional memories of those she has loved and lost, the house she loves becomes as sacred to readers as it is the narrator.

Readers will lose themselves in Rose's tearful attachment to the house she loves. Rose's memories are happy, painful, and bittersweet. Not only must Rose come to terms with losing the house associated with the happiest moments she has shared with her now gone husband and son, but she must relieve some of the most painful memories of her past, including one secret she dare never reveal to her husband while he lived.

THE HOUSE I LOVED is an emotional masterpiece which will profoundly touch the hearts of readers. Tatiana de Rosnay has penned a novel of love and loss which readers will want to revisit again and again like old friend. Each page of THE HOUSE I LOVED is a beautiful outpouring of emotion. This is truly a novel you will want to curl up with and read cover to cover in one sitting. Not only did Tatiana de Rosnay create a protagonist which will steal your heart, but each character in this novel will seem like old friend as de Rosnay takes the readers into the heart of the Rue Childebert.

Book Summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept comes an absorbing new novel about one woman's resistance during an époque that shook Paris to its very core. Paris, France: 1860's. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, moulding it into a “modern city.” The reforms will erase generations of history—but in the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a stand. Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years. The House I Loved is both a poignant story of one woman's indelible strength, and an ode to Paris, where houses harbor the joys and sorrows of their inhabitants, and secrets endure in the very walls...