Nanon

Nanon is eleven years old and owns nothing but a ewe named Rosette when the Revolution comes to her corner of rural France. Raised by her great-uncle in grinding poverty near the abbey of Valcreux, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with a gentle young novice monk - in reality Émilien, heir to the noble house of Franqueville, hiding from a world that no longer has room for men of his birth.

As the Terror sweeps the countryside, sends the abbey's monks fleeing, and puts a price on the heads of aristocrats, it is Nanon - sharp-eyed, fearless, and utterly devoted - who becomes Émilien's protector. Disguised, resourceful, and driving a hard bargain with revolutionary tribunals and shrewd men of business alike, she hides him, feeds him, and keeps him alive through years of hunted exile in a remote fairy-haunted wilderness, while history burns down the world both of them were born into.

A story of loyalty across the widest possible divide of birth and fortune, Nanon is George Sand's warm, clear-eyed tribute to the courage of ordinary people swept up in extraordinary times - and to a love that outlasts revolution, war, and the loss of everything else.