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FALL 2013
Release date: October 15
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ABOUT THE BOOK
In 1936, young Luise Rainer won the Academy Award for best actress. The following year she won it again. Then she walked away from it all. Hollywood was not sufficiently interested in perfection. But Luise certainly was. Just ask her daughter.
Born in New York to two-time Oscar legend Luise Rainer and famed publisher Robert Knittel, author Francesca Knittel’s life was one of privilege though marked by slalom: “Everything my mother did was laced with drama and salted with difficulties,” writes the author. “In my life, she was a tornado, a roller-coaster ride, a whirling windstorm. My father, with his strong sense of self, was able to weather my mother’s moods and tirades with silent calm. I grew up buffeted between the stormy sea that was my mother and the safe pasture that was my father.” The duplicity would define her life.
In a story that jet-sets from the villas of Europe to the mansions of Hollywood, Francesca Knittel reveals—with great charm and wit—what it was like to become an independent woman in the shadow of a mother who could never be pleased—or, worse, upstaged. This is a story of passion, of the thin line between love and hate, how our lives are shaped by the those who love us—and those who won’t, and of the importance of loyalty—regardless.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francesca Knittel worked for Harper’s Bazaar, UK, as an art buyer for Young and Rubicam in Milan Italy, and as an actress. Two marriages and two children later she settled on the passion of writing, a talent clearly on display in this wonderfully entertaining memoir.
REVIEWS
“What a delicious story from the only person who could tell it straight! A fabulous, exotic, heart-tearing, fascinating memoir. A juicy tell-all, a salacious story—with a good ending.”—Kitty Kelley, bestselling investigative biographer
“Some lives—and stories—are bigger than others. This is one of them. A memoir you won’t soon forget!”—Beverly Johnson, supermodel and designer, Beverly Johnson Designs
“Francesca Boyer has always been ‘The Hostess with the Mostess’…she is in her writing as well! She introduces us to all her characters …we fall in love and become best friends! Pure pleasure!”—Ruta Lee, actress
“This is one of the those OMG! sort of stories...and it’s all true! A best-seller, for sure.” —Lorna Luft, Singer, Actress, Writer
"I tremendously enjoyed this work. Francesca writes with elegance and insight, and her story is one that intersects the lives of a number of people I have known and care about. I am glad to have the tale in her rendition."—Walt Odets is a psycologist, photographer, writer—and son of Clifford Odets |
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