A hopeful new novel from Danielle Steel, whose countless #1 <New York Times <bestselling novels have made her one of America’s favorite storytellers.

Autorentext

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s bestselling authors, with a billion copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include The Portrait, For Richer For Poorer, A Mother’s Love, A Mind of Her Own, Far From Home, Never Say Never, Trial by Fire, Triangle, Joy, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Expect a Miracle, a book of her favorite quotations for inspiration and comfort; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A beautiful American widow finds new life in France in this tender portrait from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel.

Following the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Sabrina Thompson finds herself adrift in their Malibu beach house. Her three adult children—scattered from New York to London to Milan—are concerned for her well-being and encourage her to take a trip to Paris.

Once abroad, an impulsive day trip from Paris to Biarritz leads Sabrina to discover the charming medieval village of Arcangues in the Basque countryside, with its unique and iconic blue shutters and historic château. The château is the ancestral home of Xavier de Bonport, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and trying to dig himself out financially after a business failed due to the pandemic. He needs rental income as urgently as Sabrina needs a refuge. With Xavier living in a smaller house on the property, Sabrina begins to transform the château into a temporary home.

As they each sense compassion and resilience in the other, as well as kindness, a friendship blossoms. Inspired by the stories of Xavier’s grandmother, who saved hundreds of Jewish children during World War II, Sabrina considers fostering some children at the request of the local Dominican nuns, whose orphanage is filled to capacity. As a newfound family begins to fill the château, Sabrina and Xavier wonder if their friendship is becoming something more.

A poignant story of healing and new beginnings, The Color of Hope is an uplifting and unforgettable novel from the master, Danielle Steel.

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

Sabrina Thompson stood looking around the living room of her Malibu home, momentarily at a loss. It was a spectacular modern house. Everything was white and open and airy. She and her husband had loved the location and the view of the beach and the ocean. Malcolm had bought it from a famous Hollywood producer for a fortune. They had gutted it and almost completely redesigned it as their romantic weekend getaway, with the eventual intention of using it as their retirement home, their home base from which to travel. Malcolm had had an epiphany three years before when he turned fifty and their youngest child, Colette, “Coco,” left for college in New York, at Parsons School of Design, her lifetime dream. He decided to retire in five years, at fifty-five. They bought the Malibu house as their future home, and planned to sell their enormous Bel Air house after he retired, and live in Malibu between trips. They had already put Bel Air on the market at an enormous price and expected it to take a few years to sell. They weren’t in a hurry since he hadn’t retired yet. It had taken them two years to achieve the look they wanted in Malibu, and they started spending weekends there as soon as the construction and decorating was finished.

They had been empty nesters now for four years. Their oldest child, Justin, had gone to Yale, as Sabrina had. She had majored in Fine Arts, and Justin majored in business and economics and was now doing graduate studies at the London School of Economics for a masters in Economics and Management. He was twenty-five. Elizabeth, “Lizzie,” their second child, had gone to Princeton, then straight to law school at Columbia when she graduated. She was now in her third and final year at twenty-four. Coco had graduated from Parsons six months earlier and was doing an internship at Prada in Milan and loving it.

Sabrina was the daughter of Hollywood royalty. Her father was a famous producer, who had made some of the biggest movies in the industry, and her mother had been a promising young starlet, when they met and fell in love. She had married him at twenty-three, and abandoned her career immediately. He was eighteen years older, and she had been a wife and mother for the rest of her life, and had no regrets about her career. They had been wonderful parents and doted on Sabrina, their only child. Sabrina had followed in her mother’s footsteps and married young at twenty-two. She was a talented artist, and had given up her career aspirations too, to raise her and Malcolm’s three children.

She felt lost at first when the children left for college, and Malcolm had encouraged her to open the art gallery she had always dreamed of. She had opened it in a beautiful space on Melrose Place in L.A., and had fun with it. She treated the artists she represented like her children, and loved their work. She sold their paintings and sculptures at moderate prices to make the work accessible and help advance their careers. It was a labor of love more than a job and she was having a great time with it. She’d owned it for four years, and often traveled to art fairs to look for new artists. She was a talented muralist herself, but only used her talent now for their own homes and select friends. She loved being Malcolm’s wife and her children’s mother. She was a quiet, private person, and had no thirst for celebrity or fame. All doors would have been open to her if she had wanted a career as an actress, but she had no interest in that whatsoever. Her only career aspirations had ever been as an artist, but she was focused now only on the work of the artists she represented, not her own.

Malcolm had come to L.A. from New York to attend USC. He was also an only child, and after college he had gotten a job at a television network in L.A., where he had risen through the ranks, with no help from his powerful father-in-law. He built his career on his own merits. He was twenty-seven when he married Sabrina, and they had three babies in the first three years. At forty he had become the head of the network, and he was happy with the decision he made at fifty to retire at fifty-five. He thought that another five years in a high-powered, ruthlessly demanding job he nonetheless enjoyed would be enough. He wasn’t power-hungry, he enjoyed what he did and was good at it. But he wanted to be free to enjoy life with Sabrina while they were young enough to do so. One of their goals for “after network television” was to buy an apartment in Paris and spend time there too.

The beautiful big home in Bel Air seemed cavernous without the children once they left. Sabrina and Malcolm didn’t need a house that size. It had made perfect sense when their children were young and it was constantly filled with other kids coming and going and spending weekends. They had the house where all their children’s friends wanted to hang out, which they had set up intentionally so that they could keep a good eye on their kids, know their friends, guide them gently, and see what was going on. But once their children left, the house felt sad to both of them. It had served its purpose, and when the house they had redesigned in Malibu was ready…