Twin Bracelets Forged

In 1927 Paris, master jeweler Max Besner creates two interlocking bracelets as Symbol and Motif for Salomon Rosman to celebrate the birth of his twins, Daniel and Ruth. The bracelets, designed to be beautiful alone but form a butterfly together, symbolize family unity and hope. Thirteen years later, as the Nazis occupy Paris, the Rosman family's world is shattered. The bracelets are seized by a German officer, Möckel, during the family's arrest, setting in motion a chain of loss, survival, and the enduring power of objects to carry memory.

The Code of Thieves

Annabel Clement teaches her daughter Colette the family's code: steal only from the cruel and use the spoils to help the oppressed. In 1930s Paris, Annabel's lessons blend etiquette, stealth, and morality, preparing Colette for a life where right and wrong are not always clear. The code is both a shield and a burden, shaping Colette's identity and her sense of responsibility to the world.

A Score in Boston

In 2018, nearly ninety-year-old Colette Marceau attends a Boston gala, targeting a neo-Nazi socialite's diamond ring. Her skills, honed over decades, allow her to steal undetected, continuing her family's tradition of redistributive justice. Colette's thefts fund causes like the Boston Center for Holocaust Education, which she secretly founded. Her actions are guided by a strict moral code, but the past is never far behind, and a photograph at the gala threatens to expose her.

Lessons from Robin Hood

As a child, Colette learns from Annabel not just the mechanics of theft but the stories that justify it. The legend of Robin Hood and the eagle's call become symbols of courage and justice. Colette's first thefts are small but meaningful, targeting those who harm others. The family's legacy is both a source of pride and a heavy expectation, as Colette is taught that heroism sometimes means breaking the law for a higher good.

Shadows of Occupation

With the German invasion of France, Colette's world narrows to survival and resistance. Her mother joins the underground, stealing to fund escape lines for Jews. Colette, forbidden from participating, feels powerless until the atrocities around her force her to act. Her thefts become acts of resistance, but the risks escalate. The family's code is tested as the line between right and wrong blurs under occupation.

The First Major Heist

At age ten, Colette's first major theft is a diamond choker from a Nazi collaborator's wife at the Paris Opéra. The experience is both thrilling and terrifying, blending the beauty of art with the darkness of war. The heist as Moral Test cements Colette's role as her mother's protégé and deepens her understanding of the stakes involved. The opera's tragic love story foreshadows the losses to come.

The Butterfly's Disappearance

During a Nazi raid, Colette's mother is arrested and her younger sister, Liliane, vanishes—taken by a man in a police uniform. The twin butterfly bracelets, hidden in the girls' nightgowns, are separated. Colette's guilt over Liliane's disappearance and her mother's death becomes the defining trauma of her life. The bracelets become symbols of both hope and loss, their fate intertwined with the family's.

The Past Resurfaces

Decades later, Colette learns that the missing half of the butterfly bracelet is on display at a Boston museum. With the help of Aviva, a woman she mentored and considers family, Colette investigates the bracelet's provenance. The search reopens old wounds and brings her into contact with Lucas O'Mara, the museum director, whose family history is entangled with the bracelet's journey from Paris to America.

The Bracelet in the Museum

Aviva's inquiries reveal that the bracelet was loaned by Lucas's grandfather-in-law, Hubert Verdier, a French immigrant and former policeman. As Colette and Aviva dig deeper, they confront the limits of memory, the unreliability of official records, and the secrets families keep. The museum becomes a stage for confrontation, as the past and present collide over the fate of the bracelet.

Secrets and Confessions

Colette confesses her life as a jewel thief to Aviva, revealing that her thefts have funded the Holocaust center and other causes. Aviva, torn between her legal ethics and her loyalty to Colette, helps trace the bracelet's history. The investigation leads to confrontations with Verdier and Lucas's family, exposing affairs, betrayals, and the tangled web of postwar survival. The search for the truth becomes a quest for justice, forgiveness, and self-acceptance.

The Betrayal Unveiled

At Verdier's funeral, Colette recognizes Lucas's grandfather, Guillaume Charpentier, as the policeman who took Liliane. In a dramatic confrontation, Charpentier confesses: he took Liliane to save her from the Nazis, believing the Marceau family was dead. Liliane was raised as his daughter, Anne, in America, her true identity suppressed. The revelation brings both closure and new questions, as Colette and Liliane are finally reunited after seventy-six years.

Reunion and Reckoning

Colette and Liliane's reunion is bittersweet, filled with memories, regrets, and the rediscovery of their shared past. The family's legacy is passed on to new generations—Lucas and his daughter Millie—who inherit not just the bracelets but the stories and values they represent. The truth about the bracelets, the thefts, and the family's sacrifices is finally acknowledged, allowing healing to begin.

Diamonds and Forgiveness

Colette and Daniel Rosman, whose families were linked by the bracelets and the war, find solace and love in each other. The bracelets are returned to the rightful heirs, and the cycle of loss is transformed into one of connection and hope. The story's final acts are about forgiveness—of self and others—and the recognition that justice is sometimes imperfect, but love and memory endure.

The Legacy Continues

The family's tradition of using their skills for good is passed on to Aviva, Lucas, and Millie. The bracelets become heirlooms not just of wealth, but of resilience, courage, and the power to choose one's own path. The story ends with a wedding, a promise, and the sense that the past, while never forgotten, can be a foundation for a better future.

Love Across Lifetimes

Colette and Daniel's late-in-life romance is a testament to the endurance of love and the possibility of new beginnings, even after decades of loss. The family gathers under hazel trees and honeysuckle, symbols of the Tristan and Isolde legend that shaped Colette's childhood. The diamonds, like memory and love, outlast war, trauma, and time, shining as beacons for those who come after.

Characters

Colette Marceau

Colette is the heart of the novel—a woman whose childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, marked by her mother's resistance and her sister's disappearance, forges her into a master thief with a strict moral code. Her psychoanalysis reveals a deep need for justice, a lifelong struggle with guilt, and a yearning for connection. Colette's development is a journey from self-imposed isolation and shame to acceptance, forgiveness, and love. Her relationships—with her mother Annabel, her protégé Aviva, her lost sister Liliane, and her late-in-life love Daniel—are the emotional core of the story.

Annabel Clement Marceau

Annabel is Colette's mother and the originator of the family's Robin Hood code. Her courage, ingenuity, and sense of justice inspire Colette, but her choices also bring tragedy. Annabel's psychoanalysis reveals a woman torn between duty and motherhood, whose legacy is both a gift and a burden to her daughter. Her death is the central trauma of Colette's life, but her teachings guide Colette's actions long after.

Liliane Marceau / Anne Charpentier

Liliane is Colette's beloved younger sister, kidnapped during the war and raised as Anne by the Charpentiers in America. Her identity is suppressed, but fragments of memory persist. Liliane's journey is one of rediscovery, as she reconnects with Colette and reclaims her past. Her existence is a living testament to survival, resilience, and the enduring bonds of family.

Aviva Haskell

Aviva is a modern attorney and volunteer at the Holocaust center, taken in by Colette after her mother's death. She is analytical, loyal, and torn between her legal ethics and her love for Colette. Aviva's development mirrors Colette's: she learns to see the world in shades of gray, to value justice over law, and to embrace the complexities of family and identity.

Daniel Rosman

Daniel is the son of Hélène Rosman, for whom the twin bracelets were made. A Holocaust survivor, he is haunted by loss but finds new purpose in his connection with Colette. Their late-in-life romance is both a healing of old wounds and a celebration of the possibility of joy after trauma. Daniel's presence brings the story full circle, uniting the threads of past and present.

Lucas O'Mara

Lucas is the museum director whose family history is entwined with the bracelet's journey. He is both a gatekeeper and a seeker, helping to unravel the mystery while confronting his own family's secrets. Lucas's relationship with Aviva and his role as Liliane's son make him a symbol of reconciliation and the future.

Marty Weaver

Marty is Colette's longtime confidant and jewelry broker. Their relationship is one of deep trust, unspoken affection, and shared history. Marty represents the possibility of platonic love and the importance of chosen family.

Annabel's Uncle Leo

Uncle Leo is Annabel's brother and Colette's mentor after the war. He embodies the family's Robin Hood legacy, teaching Colette the skills and ethics of their trade. His presence is a reminder of the weight of inheritance and the freedom to choose one's own path.

Hélène Rosman

Hélène is Daniel's mother and Annabel's friend, whose arrest and death in Auschwitz are the catalyst for the story's central mystery. She represents the countless lives disrupted and destroyed by war, and the hope that memory and justice can endure.

Guillaume Charpentier / Bill Carpenter

Charpentier is the policeman who takes Liliane, believing he is saving her. His actions are a mix of cowardice, desperation, and misguided good intentions. His confession and remorse are central to the novel's exploration of guilt, forgiveness, and the complexity of moral choices in wartime.

Plot Devices

Interlocking Bracelets as Symbol and Motif

The twin butterfly bracelets are the novel's central symbol, representing family, unity, and the enduring power of objects to carry history. Their journey—from Paris to Boston, from one generation to the next—mirrors the characters' search for identity and justice. The bracelets are both MacGuffin and metaphor, driving the plot and embodying its themes.

Dual Timelines and Generational Echoes

The narrative alternates between wartime Paris and contemporary Boston, using parallel storylines to explore how trauma, secrets, and love echo across generations. This structure allows for foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and the gradual revelation of truths that reshape the characters' understanding of themselves and each other.

Letters, Poems, and Hidden Messages

Letters, poems, and secret notes—especially those exchanged between Colette and "Tristan"—serve as both plot devices and windows into the characters' inner lives. These fragments bridge time, preserve memory, and provide clues that drive the investigation forward.

The Heist as Moral Test

The mechanics of theft—planning, execution, and aftermath—are used to explore questions of justice, agency, and the limits of law. Each heist is a test of character, forcing Colette and others to confront the consequences of their choices and the meaning of their code.

The Unreliable Witness and the Power of Memory

The novel repeatedly questions the reliability of memory, the gaps in official records, and the ways in which trauma distorts perception. Characters must piece together the past from incomplete, conflicting, or suppressed memories, highlighting the fragility and necessity of truth-telling.

Analysis

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau is a sweeping, multi-generational tale that interrogates the boundaries between right and wrong, the weight of inheritance, and the redemptive power of love and memory. At its core, the novel asks: What does it mean to do good in a world where the law is not always just? Through the lens of a family of "Robin Hood" thieves, Harmel explores how trauma and loss can both shatter and forge identity, and how the search for justice is often a search for self-forgiveness. The twin bracelets, passed from hand to hand, become a metaphor for the ways in which history is both a burden and a gift—something to be honored, but not to be imprisoned by. The novel's modern resonance lies in its insistence that ordinary people, through small acts of courage and kindness, can make a difference. Ultimately, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau is a testament to resilience, the complexity of moral choice, and the enduring hope that, even after the darkest of times, it is possible to come home.

Last updated: June 24, 2025