The Disenchantment

DEBUT Bell’s beguiling, gorgeously written debut transports readers to the scandal-ridden 17th-century Paris court of Louis XIV, where two noblewomen fall passionately, dangerously in love. As a teenager, minor aristocrat Marie Catherine is married off to the Baron de Cardonney, a brutish man heavily in debt and twice her age who desires her inheritance far more than Marie Catherine herself. Though miserable in her marriage, Marie Catherine is a devoted mother who enjoys crafting elaborate fairy stories for her two children. Her inventive storytelling is also welcomed at Madame de Fotent’s salon, where liberal aristocrats discuss taboo topics. Here Marie Catherine befriends, and then falls in love with, the headstrong, charismatic Countess Victoire, whose money, social standing, and tolerant family allow her to behave scandalously. When the Baron de Cardonney is shot dead by a masked man soon after claiming that his wife is unfaithful, the two women try to craft a story to allow them to escape Paris with Marie Catherine’s children.