The Writer’s Center welcomes Mary Bruton Sandifer for a reading and wine tasting to celebrate the release of her new novel, Jeanne: Seeds of Infinity. Mary and her family own the vineyard Domaine La Tourbeille in the Bordeaux region in France, and will offer a tasting of their La Tourbeille Rosé, “l’Esprit de Jeanne.”
Free and open to the public. Please register below.
Mary Bruton Sandifer is the author of Grapes and Old Stones, the chronicle of her French-American family’s winemaking adventures in France. She was born in Washington DC where she earned her university degree in Literature from The Catholic University of America. She grew up in Silver Spring, MD. After a peripatetic life in New York, London and Paris, home is now a hilltop above the Dordogne River where she works with her husband and children making wine.
About the Book
A distant province in France. A miracle hidden in an ancient forest. A young woman desperately seeking her ancestor’s magical remedies, as an evil syndicate is hell bent on destroying them.
Hours after Jeanne is sworn into nobility, her family suddenly loses everything – château, power, friends. Banned and impoverished, they move to a decrepit farmhouse near a mysterious forest, while Jeanne mourns her childhood dreams and all that meant home. Until the forest reveals secrets. When elemental spirits propel Jeanne into her grandmother’s resplendent realm of botany and secret medicinal remedies, she is called to fulfill her ancestor’s promise: protect the miracle hidden in the forest. But she is no match for the vile, parasitic netherworld of the enemy. Only the spirits can gird Jeanne with essential weapons: a glimpse into the Divine, and a warrior’s mastery of herself.
“This beautiful novel is a love letter to the French countryside and its secrets. Jeanne, the wonderfully flawed young heroine, stands alone against the forces of greed in a compelling tale of adventure, hard-won wisdom and the fragility of forest magic. She is a heroine for the ages, and I loved her.” –Pamela Hogan, Emmy Award Winner Women, War & Peace