max and ada, ten-year-old neighbours, are engrossed in composing a book of spells in a tree house in paris when the nazis arrive to occupy the city. max, the child of a rape and abandoned by his mother, is in foster care; ada is jewish. almost fifty years later max, the black sheep of the family, summons his grandson to tell him the story of those years in paris and reveal a guilty secret that has eaten away at him. his mind is now set on digging up the past and he wants mark to accompany him across the english channel. his dying wish is to shed light on the two missing women in his life: ada and his mother. mark though is struggling with his own existential crisis. there is a missing woman in his life too. a deftly accomplished tightrope act of pathos and humour, the tree house is a bewitching novel of loss and restitution, heritage and the hereafter.