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A novel about love and loss, ups and downs, "The Chanel Sisters" fills with the hope that survival is possible despite everything.

In her novel, Judithe Little tells the story of the Chanel sisters from the name of Antoinette, who – deservedly or rather not – remains in the shadow of her great sister. As they follow Ninette from the orphanage in Obazine through Vichy and Paris, to Canada and Buenos Aires, readers experience her eventful fate, discovering also a more down-to-earth, sensitive and vulnerable Coco Chanel.

The three Chanel sisters believe their destiny is Something Better. After their mother's death and abandoned by their father, Gabrielle, Antoinette and Julia-Bert grow up in an orphanage attached to a monastery in a small French town. The nuns prepare them for a humble life under strict rules. Only at night do the girls secretly read the melodramatic stories in tabloid romance novels and fashion magazines that keep their dreams of a glamorous future alive. When they come of age, the sisters are confident they can place themselves in the society that has rejected them. The more ambitious and resilient – Gabrielle and Antoinette – will make it to Paris through all kinds of trials, and Gabrielle, the future queen of elegance known as Coco, will even conquer the world of fashion where she will leave her mark forever. Shoulders to shoulders at difficult times and in times of triumph, the two sisters found the Chanel empire, which educates the taste for elegance to this day.