A lighter for fire, a supply of food, clothing and water. As her classmates are leaving on vacation, Billie, 13, has decided to run away.

Inspired by Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees, she moves into a treehouse in an abandoned treetop-adventure course overlooking the ocean.

Hidden by the lush greenery, she settles down to wait, without realizing that her impulsive, adolescent action has stirred up secrets from the past.

What is she running away from? She doesn’t really know. Her father’s indifference, probably, shrouded as he is in sorrow since his wife left after the girl’s birth. The gap between them has grown so huge that when Leo realizes that his daughter has fled, he doesn’t have a clue where to start looking for her. While Billie waits in her leafy refuge, a stranger who is looking for her other reasons reaches out to her.

With the insight and vitality that are features of her writing, Delphine Bertholon’s La baronne perchée provides both an ode to youthful energy and a touching novel about roots that can hold us up or tie us down.