An unconventional young woman in turn-of-the-century France ascends to her full potential in this mesmerizing coming-of-age story
It's 1897 in Sèvres, France and, from her bedroom window, Odette Huré watches a funeral bier carry her father's coffin away. She is twenty-one and she has not left the house for ten years.
Odette has become ever more reclusive - spending her days reading and soothing herself with food. With the sudden death of her father, the walls she has built around herself begin to crumble. Forced into society, she discovers she is now responsible for a fortune and a stockings factory – renowned for its exquisite designs which adorn the slender ankles of Parisian femmes célèbres.
Now Odette must try and navigate the world she has hidden from for so long. In doing so, she must excavate the secrets left behind by her father and in turn, accept the shocking truth about her own identity and all that she is capable of. Odette is a protagonist-complex and flawed, but compelling and full of warmth-we can whole-heartedly root for as we watch her rise. Julianne Edwards is a psychotherapist. Having studied at St. Andrew's and Oxford, she lived and worked in London and around Europe and the USA. She now lives with her family and animals in a small hamlet in the Cotswolds and can mostly be found in her shed. Odette Rising is her debut novel.
