Secret Gate

The house called Serendipity seems almost alive, and it hides a concealed passage that opens onto the countryside beyond its grounds. For Anne Edwards, a fifteen-year-old, that passage feels like a doorway into another realm. She is trying to get away from her domineering father and her irritating brothers, and every outing past the walls of the family home brings her relief.

Through this hidden exit, Anne becomes acquainted with Claudine and Claudine's good-looking brother Jacques, each of whom opens up new horizons for her in a different way. Years later, once Anne has a child of her own, she senses that the world around her is shifting. Meanwhile the house quietly watches generations pass beneath its roof, as Anne's daughter grows up and has a daughter of her own.

The passage stays unknown to others until Anne identifies someone worthy of being entrusted with it. The novel is less about a building than about the people who live inside it and about how life and society keep changing. Its concerns include family bonds, life and death, love and music.