The classic coming-of-age novel translated into English for the first time. It is 1919. On a summer's night in Normandy, a newborn baby is left in a basket outside the home of Albert and Jeanne Arnaud. The childless couple take the foundling in, name him Jean, and decide to raise him as their own, though his parentage remains a mystery. Though Jean's life is never dull, he grows up knowing little of what lies beyond his local area. Until the day he sets off on his bicycle to discover the world, and encounters a Europe on the threshold of interesting times. . Michel Déon has published more than fifty works. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Interallié for his 1970 novel Les Poneys Sauvages (The Wild Ponies). His 1973 novel Un Taxi Mauve garnered him international renown when it received the esteemed Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. His novels have been translated into many languages. He is considered one of the most innovative French writers of the twenty-first century. Déon is one of just forty members of the Académie française who are elected by their peers to serve for life. Déon lives in Ireland with his wife and their horses

In this sequel to the acclaimed novel The Foundling Boy, Michel Déon's hero comes to manhood and learns about desire and possession, sex and love, and the nuances of allegiance that war necessitates. In the aftermath of French defeat in July 1940, twenty-year-old Jean Arnaud and his ally, the charming conman Palfy, are hiding out at a brothel in Clermont-Ferrand, having narrowly escaped a firing squad. At a military parade, Jean falls for a beautiful stranger, Claude, who will help him forget his adolescent heartbreak but bring far more serious troubles of her own. Having safely reached occupied Paris, the friends mingle with art smugglers and forgers, social climbers, showbiz starlets, bluffers, swindlers, and profiteers, French and German, as Jean learns to make his way in a world of murky allegiances. But beyond the social whirl, the war cannot stay away forever