The Emerald Twins
AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE
France, 1944. In an opulent hotel room above the streets of Paris, a mother sobs and clutches her twin daughters tight. A German officer says, ‘Give me the emerald, and I will only take one of your children. The choice is yours.’
AN UNBREAKABLE PROMISE
Five-year-old Nina weeps for her sister. But a warm, familiar hand strokes her golden hair. ‘The jewel, the Emerald Lake, it brings people together. You will find her.’
THREE GENERATIONS OF SECRETS
South of France, present day. Fleur arrives at a beautiful villa by the sparkling Mediterranean, devastated at the loss of her grandmother Nina. She has no other family. Why did Nina never tell her she owned this place? Then, tucked away in the villa, she finds a faded missing poster showing a little girl, blonde hair tied with red ribbons, holding a message: Do you know my twin sister?
The accompanying newspaper clippings about jewellery auctions throughout the years tell Fleur that answers lie in the replica emerald ring that Nina wore every day, now adorning her own finger.
Local gem expert Nicolas is the only one who can help find the truth. But as they uncover a heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by war, the pair face danger from an unexpected place. And Fleur must ask if her grandmother kept her secrets for a reason…
An absolutely devastating, epic and unforgettable read that will sweep you through the generations and whisk you away to the cobbled streets of Paris and the turquoise waters of the South of France.
Inspirations
I have always been fascinated by twins, and their seeming psychic connections, the threads that run through families, the familiarities and co-incidences that exist despite years spent apart. There is a theory that there is a ‘genetic memory’ in all of us, that some children inherit the emotional and psychological burdens of their parents or ancestors when they have experienced extreme trauma such as war.
Central to journey of the twins in my book is a quest to find each other through The Emerald Lake. Is the gem itself a mysterious crystal with special powers to reunite? Many civilisations have believed in the powers of crystals and gems. Or do we as humans imbue them with our own hopes and fears? We certainly use jewels to mark major events in our lives, to show affection and love, pass them down through families to remember each other by. I loved researching gemmology, finding out about the science of gems are formed, the refractive qualities, the colours and variety, as well as talking to jewellers about their craft and inspirations. What struck me was the sheer beauty of these things, created over millennia and retrieved from deep within the earth, each unique, with their own meaning to each of us.
So many works of art and precious family heirlooms were looted by Nazis in WWII. These possessions represent people’s lives, their successes, their hopes and fears. They belong to them and their heirs, and to this day there are many organisations who are still working to reunite victims or their heirs with their possessions. As Deidre Berger of the Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations eloquently puts it, “every piece of art which is returned to its original owners is a victory against the Hitler era.”
