A Novel
by Nina George
A respected professor begins a secret affair with her son's girlfriend one summer on the Brittany coast in this intense, poetic novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop.
Claire is one of Paris's most esteemed behavioral biologists, with an enviable career and family, but she has become increasingly frustrated by the stasis of her marriage, including her husband's unremarked-upon affairs, and feels caged by the obligations she took on too early in life.
As she and her family prepare for their annual holiday to the Brittany coast, her son Nico comes to her with a request: can his new girlfriend Julie join them for the summer? Nico feels certain this is the next step in merging their lives together, but Julie wonders if this man is really her path or if her passions—for performance, for intimacy, for a bigger life—will mean there's not a real future for them.
What Julie and Claire don't realize is that they share a secret—they've met before, in a compromising moment whose implications will color their relationship from the moment it's revealed. Both Julie and Claire are at a crossroads, each waiting for something that will set her on fire inside—the rush of life, colors, courage. Under the blazing Brittany sun, by the silence of the sea and in the raging of a nighttime thunderstorm, they will ignite and never be the same again.
Sensual, provocative, and probing, Nina George's Beautiful Nights explores femininity in all its facets and stages. It is a story of becoming who you were meant to be by breaking apart the things you've always known.
"George's fluid and lyrical prose carries the reader along as the story alternates from languid scenes to heavy emotions. It's a worthy choice for the beach bag." —Publishers Weekly
This information about Beautiful Nights was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nina George is the author of The Little Paris Bookshop, The Little French Bistro, The Book of Dreams, and The Little Village of Book Lovers. The Little Paris Bookshop spent more than forty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was translated into thirty-six languages. George is the former president of the European Writers' Council. She is married to the writer Jens J. Kramer. Together they also write mystery novels and children's books. Nina George lives in Berlin and in a little fishing village in the Bretagne.

If you liked Beautiful Nights, try these:
by Ann Packer
Published 2026
The bestselling, beloved author returns with her first novel in over a decade, an intimate and profoundly moving look at a long marriage and the ways in which a startling request can change a couple's understanding of who they are, together and apart.
by Megan Giddings
Published 2026
From the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, a dazzling novel about two brilliant sisters and what happens to their undeniable bond when a mysterious and possibly perilous new world beckons.
After the Funeral and Other Stories
by Tessa Hadley
Published 2024
A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships.
Be sincere, be brief, be seated
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.