Madame

Set in gloomy Soviet-controlled Poland, yet sparkling with light and warmth, Madame is a story of adolescence with which many will identify.

The novel's hero - a precocious, talented and hugely likeable schoolboy - falls hopelessly under the spell of his elegant and mysterious French teacher.

Bewitched with her glacial beauty and cool intelligence, he resolves to learn everything he can about her. And, ultimately, to win her heart. In a sequence of marvellously funny, but sobering manoeuvres, he finds out much more than he expected - about politics, Poland and the Spanish Civil War, and about his own family's shrouded past.

His quest allows him to take his first steps to liberation as an artist; but can he ensnare the elusive Madame?