The Story of the Little Mamsell

Paris burns. The Revolution devours its children. In the chaos of 1790s Paris, a young servant named Franz befriends Manon, a grocer's daughter with more courage than her station should allow. When the Baron who employs Franz falls into danger, Manon makes a daring choice: she dons Franz's confirmation suit and navigates the treacherous streets of revolutionary Paris to save him. Their friendship, forged in danger and bound by secret disguise, becomes a bittersweet memory that an old Mahlmann recounts years later, a man who once watched these two children navigate a world determined to destroy them. Niese crafts a tender, devastating portrait of youth fractured by history, of innocent alliances broken by the machinery of political violence. For readers who believe history's truest stories live in the hearts of its smallest players.