In September 1944, as the war draws to a close, the small German town of Sigmaringen becomes the last refuge of France’s darkest face. Hitler installs the remnants of the Vichy government in the castle of the Hohenzollern princes, bringing with them Marshal Pétain and Pierre Laval, their ministers, members of the Milice, and some two thousand French refugees. Among them is Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
At the heart of this strange world is Julius Stein, the castle’s butler. Reserved and unassuming, Stein watches and listens, missing nothing. As a little France takes shape around him, trapped in exile and rife with betrayal, intrigue, and struggles for power, its inhabitants try to save their own futures—or erase their pasts.
But Sigmaringen is only an illusion. The Allies are closing in, the Third Reich is collapsing, and with it disappears the last refuge of Vichy France. As the illusion begins to crumble, Julius’s secret love for Jeanne Wolfermann, the marshal’s housekeeper, forces him to do what he finds hardest: stop watching and finally take sides.
- Cover: paperback
- Year of the edition: 2026.
- Original title: Sigmaringen
- Original language: French
- Translation: Dubravka Celebrini
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