[The Foundling Boy 01] • Le Jeune Homme Vert

The classic coming-of-age novel translated into English for the first time.

It is 1919. On a summer’s night in Normandy, a newborn baby is left in a basket outside the home of Albert and Jeanne Arnaud. The childless couple take the foundling in, name him Jean, and decide to raise him as their own, though his parentage remains a mystery.

Though Jean’s life is never dull, he grows up knowing little of what lies beyond his local area. Until the day he sets off on his bicycle to discover the world, and encounters a Europe on the threshold of interesting times. . . .

Michel Déon has published more than fifty works, including Les Poneys Sauvages ( The Wild Ponies ) and Un Taxi Mauve. His novels have been translated into many languages, and he is considered one of the most innovative French writers of the twenty-first century.