A breathtaking historical novel of revenge, persecution and loss, The City of Tears by Kate Mosse follows on from her Sunday Times number one bestseller, The Burning Chambers. May 1572: for ten violent years the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless lives have been lost, and the country has been torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty.

But now a precarious peace is in the balance and a royal wedding has been negotiated. It is a marriage that could see France reunited at last. An invitation has arrived for Minou Joubert and her family to attend this historic wedding in Paris in August.

But what Minou does not know is that the Joubert family's oldest enemy, Vidal, will also be there. Nor that, within days of the marriage, on the eve of the Feast Day of St Bartholomew, her family will be scattered to the four winds and one of her beloved children will have disappeared without trace . .

. Sweeping from Paris and Chartres to the City of Tears itself - the great refugee city of Amsterdam - this is a story of one family's fight to stay together and survive against the devastating tides of history . .