The Pen

World War II has just ended. Revenge is in the air. All across France accusations are flying. Paris has decided to appoint one person in each town to investigate allegations and make life-and-death judgments. In eleven-year-old Lily Page’s small town of Sainte-Therese-Sur-Seine the hunt has begun for Nazi collaborators. Their fate rests in the hands of one man, Pascal Monette, the town lawyer, Lily’s neighbor, and the father of her best friend Albert.

Nicknamed the Pen because of the power granted him by the central government, Pascal Monette has been empowered to sign death warrants for those he deems guilty of collaboration. Who is the first in his sights? It’s Lily’s older sister Beatrice, who stepped out with a German soldier during the war. But did Beatrice do something much worse than that? And if she did, can any power on earth save her? Lily will try … but can anyone stop the Pen from signing?

In a France hungry for revenge, the fate of Lily Page’s beautiful sister Beatrice rests squarely on Lily’s shoulders.

Author

Eric Maisel is the author of 50 works of fiction and nonfiction. His nonfiction includes Overcoming Your Difficult Family, The Future of Mental Health, Coaching the Artist Within, and The Van Gogh Blues. His novels include Murder in Berlin, The Blackbirds of Mulhouse, Aster Lynn, and Settled. He writes the "Rethinking Mental Health" blog for Psychology Today, the "Coaching the Artist Within" column for Professional Artist Magazine, and leads workshops internationally in locations like New York, London, Prague, Rome, Berlin and Paris.

Publisher’s Reviews

“The Pen is so suspenseful I literally could not put it down until I'd finished it. We hear so much about ‘the me generation’ of young adults who care only about themselves. In The Pen we have a teenage girl who is totally focused on saving her sister. We experience her fears, her frustrations, and her determination through many exciting twists and turns. Just as I thought the book would end, a new development occurred and I was glued to the page, anxious to know what would happen to Lilly, her sister Beatrice, her best friend Albert, and the scoundrel Leon. The Pen is an excellent read!”—Marj Penley