Product Description

Aninternational best sellerof consummate dramatic sweep and emotional force,is the story of afather and daughter locked in a bitter contestfor control of the world's mostlegendary banking house. Historical, romantic fiction that leaves the reader spellbound.

Reared in thesplendid excess of her family's London homeand country estate; blessed withbeauty and a precocious intelligencethat has already captured the eye of her empire-building grandfather, Deborah de Kronenegold has everything, or so it seems. But her childhood equilibrium is shattered whenshe discovers that she is adopted, and when she becomes theobject of her father Leslie's malevolence. Upon the deaths of hergrandfather Samuel and her lovely and ill-fated mother Madeleine--and the mysterious disappearance of thewill naming Deborah her grandfather's principal heir--Leslie sets in motion a series of shocking and irrevocable events.Deborah is turned out,and with nothing but her resolve to claim her birthright,she moves to New York, and starts to build a financial empireto rival her father's--and to bring him down.

contains a constellation ofpassionate love stories: there is Bash, Deborah's first love, whose heritage forbids him what he most desires; and David, who offers Deborah wealth and security and adoration--but at a terrible price. Finally, there is the story ofanother love affair--set in distant war-torn Italy, which unlocks the secret of Deborah's birthright.

As played out against theglamorous world of international finance,and set in theboardrooms of London, Paris, and New York, in sumptuous townhouses, chateaus, and penthouses, and inItaly and in in modern Israel,cuts a grand and satisfying swath. It is a tirumph of the unexpected that willhold the reader captivated right up to its surprising conclusion.