The Fortress: A Love Story

The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Falling Through the Earth and Angelology returns with this much-anticipated memoir of love and transformation in France. The Fortress is Peter Mayle meets Eat, Pray, Love, a gorgeously written account of one woman’s journey to the other side of the romantic fairytale.

"If I had been another woman, I might have been skeptical. But I wasn’t another woman. I was a woman ready to be swept away. I was a woman ready for her story to begin. As a writer, story was all that mattered. Rising action, dramatic complication, heroes and villains and dark plots. I believed I was the author of my life, that I controlled the narration."

From their first kiss, twenty-seven-year-old writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of jazz and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance.

Eight years later, hopeful to renew their marriage, Danielle and her husband move to the south of France, to a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc. It is here, in a haunted stone fortress built by the Knights Templar, that she comes to understand the dark, subterranean forces that have been following her all along.

While Danielle and her husband eventually part, Danielle's time in the fortress brings precious wisdom about life and love that she could not have learned otherwise. Ultimately, she finds the strength to overcome her illusions, and start again.

An incisive look at romantic love, The Fortress is one woman’s fight to understand the complexities of her own heart, told by one of the best writers of her generation.

From their first meeting, writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a brilliant, mysterious novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of music and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance. Within months, they are married and embark upon an adventurous life together.

Eight years later, their marriage in trouble, Trussoni and her husband move to the South of France, hoping to save their relationship. They discover Aubais (pronounced obey, as in love, honor and . . . Aubais), a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc, where they buy a thirteenth-century stone fortress. Aubais is a Mediterranean paradise of sun, sea, and vineyards, but they soon learn the fortress’s secret history of subterranean chambers, Knights Templar, hidden treasure, Nazis, and ghosts. During her years in Aubais, Trussoni’s marriage unravels with terrifying consequences, and she comes to understand that love is never the way we imagine it to be.

With vivid eloquence and wrenching honesty, The Fortress lays bare one of the great mysteries of modern life: the secret emotional world of a failing marriage. - Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians

“A memoir that reads like a fairy tale….entertaining.” - Kirkus Reviews

“A memoir that reads like a fairy tale….entertaining.” - Kirkus Reviews

“[The Fortress] is a powerful story, and Trussoni has the fortitude and judgment to do it justice.” - Publishers Weekly

“[The Fortress] is a powerful story, and Trussoni has the fortitude and judgment to do it justice.” - Publishers Weekly

“The Fortress is a bold book about the most intimate things. Danielle Trussoni’s clear-eyed examination of how she loved and lost her husband is both a page-turner and a profound meditation on the nature of desire and freedom in the modern age.” - Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild.

“From the moment Trussoni, author of the memoir Falling through the Earth (2006) and the popular Angelology fantasy series, met Nikolai, their attraction was singular and obsessive. In this memoir spanning the length of their relationship, Trussoni’s introspection and finely wrought details strike both joy and pain into readers’ hearts as she details a true love only the supremely hopeful or unblemished can imagine….an immersive and honest portrayal of human nature bound by commitment.” - Booklist Online

With vivid eloquence and wrenching honesty, The Fortress lays bare one of the great mysteries of modern life: the secret emotional world of a failing marriage. - Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians

“A brave and wrenching memoir, Danielle Trussoni’s The Fortress will captivate the many readers who are already in love with her magical novels [...] I dare you to put this book down once you read the opening page. Make that a double dare.” - Julie Metz, author of Perfection