Blanche: A Story for Girls

A young Englishwoman's journey from delicate girl to resilient widow, told through the lens of her daughters. Anastasia Fenning leaves England for France seeking health, finds love against her father's wishes, and loses everything twice before finding her footing in a foreign land. When Henry Derwent dies, leaving her with two young daughters, Blanche and Stasy, she must build a life alone in a country that was never quite home. The novel follows their return to England, where identity and belonging become as uncertain as they were in France. This is a story about reinvention after loss, about the particular bravery required of women who must remake themselves in the shadow of grief, and about what it means to belong fully to no single place.