Jacqueline in Paris

From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage,a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier’s college year abroad in postwar Parisan intimate and electrifying story of love and betrayaland the coming-of-age of an American icon – before the world knew her as Jackie. In September 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She’s twenty years oldsocially poised but financially precariousand all too aware of her mother’s expectations that she make a brilliant match. Before relenting to family pressureshe has one year to herself far away from sleepy Vassar College and the rigid social circles of New Yorka year to explore and absorb the luminous beauty of the City of Light. Jacqueline is immediately catapulted into an intoxicating new world of champagne and ch├óteauxart and avant-garde theatercaf├⌐s and jazz clubs. She strikes up a romance with a talented young writer who shares her love of literature and passion for culture – even though her mother would think him most unsuitable. But beneath the glitter and rushFrance is a fragile place still haunted by the Occupation. Jacqueline lives in a rambling apartment with a widowed countess and her daughtersall of whom suffered as part of the French Resistance just a few years before. In the aftermath of World War IIParis has become a nest of spiesand suspiciondeceptionand betrayal lurk around every corner. Jacqueline is stunned to watch the rise of communism – anathema in Americabut an active movement in France – never guessing she is witnessing the beginning of the political environment that will shape the rest of her life–and that of her future husband. Evocativesensitiveand rich in historic detailJacqueline in Paris portrays the origin story of an American icon. Ann Mah brilliantly imagines the intellectual and aesthetic awakening of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassisand illuminates how France would prove to be her one true loveand one of the greatest influences on her life.