The Riviera House

From the New York Times bestselling author comes this extraordinary masterpiece of historical fiction that will have you wiping tears from your face

Paris, 1939 While working at the Louvre, Eliane Dufort falls for talented painter Xavier. But when the Nazis occupy the city, Xavier leaves for England and Eliane must send her sisters to the country. Broken-hearted, she finds herself working with the mysterious Rose Valland on a dangerous secret mission for the French Resistance: to record all the priceless national treasures the Germans are stealing.

Present Day Desperate to escape her grief, Remy Lang arrives at a stunning private estate on the French Riviera. While working on her vintage fashion business, she discovers a catalogue of artworks stolen during World War II and is shocked to see a painting that hung on her childhood bedroom wall in Sydney. Who is her family, really? And does the Riviera house hold more secrets than Remy is ready to face?

Lush, engrossing and deeply moving, this is the story of the brave women who worked against the Nazis, told by the international bestselling author of The Paris Secret and The French Photographer.

Staff Review
by Scott Whitmont

With each successive historical novel, Perth-based author Natasha Lester continues to up the ante with the obvious quality of her historical research and dual-narrative storytelling. Set during the oppressive WWII Occupation of France, The Riviera House delves into the brazen Nazi theft of priceless treasures from their national galleries and the private collections of Jewish families.

Eliane Dufort works for the Louvre in 1939 and soon finds herself forced to identify and catalogue these stolen works, readying them for shipment to secret Nazi repositories or to the private collections of Hitler and Göring. Hiding that she speaks German and working with the mysterious Rose Valland (a real-life heroine/spy), she’s determined to secretly record the whereabouts of the artworks and feed it to the French Resistance, despite the constant threat of torture and death that would befall her, her colleagues and family if discovered.

In the present day, Australian vintage fashion influencer Remy Lang, devastated by a recent family tragedy, moves to a beautiful villa bequeathed to her on the French Riviera to face her grief. There, in a catalogue of Nazi stolen artworks, she’s stunned to discover a photo of the favourite painting that had hung on her childhood bedroom wall. What is the secret to her family’s unknown past and what possible connection could there be to the detestable world of Herrman Göring and the Occupation?

The two storylines are equally gripping as the mysteries that inexorably connect them are gradually and cleverly revealed. Along the way, both Eliane’s and Remy’s passionate love stories are played out with all their inherent dangers, pitfalls and dramas, giving the reader an epic novel straddling genres of history, romance and mystery with equally gratifying agility.

About the Author

Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive before returning to university to study creative writing. She completed a Master of Creative Arts as well as her first novel, What Is Left Over, After, which won the T.A.G. Hungerford Award for Fiction. Her second novel, If I Should Lose You, was published in 2012, followed by A Kiss from Mr. Fitzgerald, Her Mother's Secret and the Top 10 Australian and international bestsellers The Paris Seamstress and The French Photographer. The Age described Natasha as 'a remarkable Australian talent' and her work has been published in numerous anthologies and journals.

In her spare time Natasha loves to teach writing, is a sought after public speaker and can often be found playing dress-ups with her three children. She lives in Perth.