Fallen for France book cover

Historical Fiction

Fallen for France

Ballantine Books · 2026

In the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, a boy leaves home to work as a shepherd in a distant village. His mother presses a strand of amber beads into his hands, promising they will help him return home. On the same day, a radiant Arabian mare is born in the Sultan's palace. For a brief, golden time, the mare belongs to the boy. But when the horse is stolen by his mentor and taken to the Great War in France, the boy begins a desperate search to find her. Boy and horse cross countries and continents, beads change hands, entwining new lives as they go. Buffeted by powerful historical forces beyond their control, each tries to hold onto their last defense — the power to care for others. Each time the mare passes through a life, she awakens new hope — and threads them, like beads on a cord, ever closer.

From Elizabeth Letts, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, Fallen for France is a novel about what history forgets — and what, against all odds, endures.

Behind the Story →

Praise

“Based on historical truths and Letts's own boundless imagination, Fallen for France is a story of serendipitous connections across continents between a gorgeous Arabian mare and an unforgettable cast of characters.”

— Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones

“From Morocco to the Western Front, a thrilling saga, by turns sweeping and intimate. Richly immersive and a splendid read — I could not put it down.”

— Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War

“In Fallen for France, Letts weaves a historically resonant indigenous North African narrative shaped by the gravity of WWI, linking the lives of Amazigh North African characters to Europe through the extraordinary and successful use of an Arabian mare whose journey connects continents, histories, and human destinies. This is both an impressive historical novel and a beautifully written work of literature. Letts's descriptive prose is so rich and exacting that the reader can see, smell, and feel the atmosphere surrounding the central characters.”

— Dr. Aomar Boum, Maurice Amado Chair of Sephardic Studies, UCLA, and member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco

“Elizabeth Letts is a spectacularly talented storyteller. Fallen for France has everything — wartime intrigue, exotic locations, and beautifully flawed characters. Prepare to be swept away.”

— Susan Meissner, author of A Map to Paradise

“Masterful and emotionally captivating … Letts explores the connections we can forge unexpectedly with animals and one another, against all odds.”

— Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of the Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series

“Poetic and powerful. Letts does not set aside her reportorial pen, weaving in real history, suffering, and hope, from the Atlas Mountains to the theater of war. Her love of horses is clearly never enough — and we are the luckier for it.”

— Sarah Maslin Nir, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal

“Readers will want to slow down and savor every sentence as Letts takes them on a ride across borders and seas, weaving a complex, beautiful tapestry of stories.”

— Natalie Keller Reinert, author of The Jump
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