The Marriage of Opposites

Here´s the story of an astonishing woman, her forbidden love, and a passion that gave birth to a movement...

Raised on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris. Rachel's mother, a pillar of their small community of Jews who escaped the European Inquisition, has never forgiven her daughter for being a difficult girl who refuses to live by her rules. Despite finding salvation in their maid Adelle's belief in her strengths, Rachel feels that her life is not her own. To save her father's business, she is married off to a widower with three children. When her husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, Frédéric, arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair - a scandal that affects her entire family, including her favorite son, Camille, who will become one of France's greatest artists. Once a forgotten history, Rachel and Frédéric's story is as unforgettable as it is remarkable, told by Alice Hoffman and the height of her considerable powers.