Author: Ken Gormley
Publisher: Milford House Press
ISBN: 9781620065242
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Ken Gormley delivers a powerful courtroom drama about the decent, largely-forgotten qualities that once were the bedrock of the simple towns that built America. The Heiress of Pittsburgh reawakens hope that the precious qualities of past generations can be reimagined to create a dazzling new future. But only if success is boldly redefined.
The Heiress of Pittsburgh
Author: Ken Gormley
Publisher: Milford House Press
ISBN: 9781620065242
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Ken Gormley delivers a powerful courtroom drama about the decent, largely-forgotten qualities that once were the bedrock of the simple towns that built America. The Heiress of Pittsburgh reawakens hope that the precious qualities of past generations can be reimagined to create a dazzling new future. But only if success is boldly redefined.
Publisher: Milford House Press
ISBN: 9781620065242
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Ken Gormley delivers a powerful courtroom drama about the decent, largely-forgotten qualities that once were the bedrock of the simple towns that built America. The Heiress of Pittsburgh reawakens hope that the precious qualities of past generations can be reimagined to create a dazzling new future. But only if success is boldly redefined.
Helen Clay Frick
Author: Martha Frick Symington Sanger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Chronicles Helen Clay Frick's lifelong commitment to social welfare, the environment, and her purchase of many significant works of art for her private collection, the Frick Collection in New York, the University of Pittsburgh teaching collection, and the Frick Art Museum.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Chronicles Helen Clay Frick's lifelong commitment to social welfare, the environment, and her purchase of many significant works of art for her private collection, the Frick Collection in New York, the University of Pittsburgh teaching collection, and the Frick Art Museum.
Captive of the Labyrinth
Author: Mary Jo Ignoffo
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826272312
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
The first full-length biography of Sarah Winchester, the subject of the movie Winchester starring Helen Mirren. Since her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester has been perceived as a mysterious, haunted figure. After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, Sarah purchased a simple farmhouse in San José, California. She began building additions to the house and continued construction on it for the next twenty years. A hostile press cast Sarah as the conscience of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company—a widow shouldering responsibility for the many deaths caused by the rifle that brought her riches. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to appease the ghouls around her. But was she really as guilt-ridden and superstitious as history remembers her? When Winchester’s home was purchased after her death, it was transformed into a tourist attraction. The bizarre, sprawling mansion and the enigmatic nature of Winchester’s life were exaggerated by the new owners to generate publicity for their business. But as the mansion has become more widely known, the person of Winchester has receded from reality, and she is only remembered for squandering her riches to ward off disturbed spirits. Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune demystifies the life of this unique American. In the first full-length biography of Winchester, author and historian Mary Jo Ignoffo unearths the truth about this notorious eccentric, revealing that she was not a maddened spiritualist driven by remorse but an intelligent, articulate woman who sought to protect her private life amidst the chaos of her public existence. The author takes readers through Winchester’s several homes, explores her private life, and, by excerpting from personal correspondence, gives the heiress a voice for the first time since her death. Ignoffo’s research reveals that Winchester’s true financial priority was not dissipating her fortune on the mansion in San José but investing it for a philanthropic legacy. For too long Sarah Winchester has existed as a ghost herself—a woman whose existence lies somewhere between the facts of her life and a set of sensationalized recollections of who she may have been. Captive of the Labyrinth finally puts to rest the myths about this remarkable woman, and, in the process, uncovers the legacy she intended to leave behind.
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826272312
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
The first full-length biography of Sarah Winchester, the subject of the movie Winchester starring Helen Mirren. Since her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester has been perceived as a mysterious, haunted figure. After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, Sarah purchased a simple farmhouse in San José, California. She began building additions to the house and continued construction on it for the next twenty years. A hostile press cast Sarah as the conscience of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company—a widow shouldering responsibility for the many deaths caused by the rifle that brought her riches. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to appease the ghouls around her. But was she really as guilt-ridden and superstitious as history remembers her? When Winchester’s home was purchased after her death, it was transformed into a tourist attraction. The bizarre, sprawling mansion and the enigmatic nature of Winchester’s life were exaggerated by the new owners to generate publicity for their business. But as the mansion has become more widely known, the person of Winchester has receded from reality, and she is only remembered for squandering her riches to ward off disturbed spirits. Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune demystifies the life of this unique American. In the first full-length biography of Winchester, author and historian Mary Jo Ignoffo unearths the truth about this notorious eccentric, revealing that she was not a maddened spiritualist driven by remorse but an intelligent, articulate woman who sought to protect her private life amidst the chaos of her public existence. The author takes readers through Winchester’s several homes, explores her private life, and, by excerpting from personal correspondence, gives the heiress a voice for the first time since her death. Ignoffo’s research reveals that Winchester’s true financial priority was not dissipating her fortune on the mansion in San José but investing it for a philanthropic legacy. For too long Sarah Winchester has existed as a ghost herself—a woman whose existence lies somewhere between the facts of her life and a set of sensationalized recollections of who she may have been. Captive of the Labyrinth finally puts to rest the myths about this remarkable woman, and, in the process, uncovers the legacy she intended to leave behind.
The Heiresses
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006225958X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars, comes The Heiresses—a novel about the Saybrooks, a diamond family blessed with beauty and fortune yet plagued by a string of tragic and mysterious deaths. The only thing more flawless than a Saybrook’s solitaire is the family behind the diamond empire. Beauties, entrepreneurs, debutantes, and mavens, the Saybrooks are the epitome of high society. Anyone would kill to be one of them. But be careful what you wish for, because if you were a Saybrook, you’d be haunted by secrets and plagued by a dark streak of luck. Tragedy strikes the prominent family yet again on a beautiful morning in May when thirty-four-year-old Poppy, the most remarkable Saybrook of them all, flings herself from the window of her office. Everyone is shocked that someone so perfect would end her own life—until her cousins receive an ominous warning: One heiress down, four to go. Was it suicide . . . or murder? And who will be next: Aster, the beautiful but reckless girl who’s never worked a day in her life—and who’s covering up her father’s darkest secret? Her older sister, Corrine, whose meticulously planned future is about to come crashing down around her? Perhaps it will be Natasha, the black sheep of the family who suddenly disinherited herself five years ago. Or maybe the perpetually single Rowan, who had the most to gain from her cousin’s death. A gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller about heiresses who must uncover a dark truth about their family before they lose the only thing money can’t buy: their lives.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006225958X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars, comes The Heiresses—a novel about the Saybrooks, a diamond family blessed with beauty and fortune yet plagued by a string of tragic and mysterious deaths. The only thing more flawless than a Saybrook’s solitaire is the family behind the diamond empire. Beauties, entrepreneurs, debutantes, and mavens, the Saybrooks are the epitome of high society. Anyone would kill to be one of them. But be careful what you wish for, because if you were a Saybrook, you’d be haunted by secrets and plagued by a dark streak of luck. Tragedy strikes the prominent family yet again on a beautiful morning in May when thirty-four-year-old Poppy, the most remarkable Saybrook of them all, flings herself from the window of her office. Everyone is shocked that someone so perfect would end her own life—until her cousins receive an ominous warning: One heiress down, four to go. Was it suicide . . . or murder? And who will be next: Aster, the beautiful but reckless girl who’s never worked a day in her life—and who’s covering up her father’s darkest secret? Her older sister, Corrine, whose meticulously planned future is about to come crashing down around her? Perhaps it will be Natasha, the black sheep of the family who suddenly disinherited herself five years ago. Or maybe the perpetually single Rowan, who had the most to gain from her cousin’s death. A gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller about heiresses who must uncover a dark truth about their family before they lose the only thing money can’t buy: their lives.
Riders in the Chariot
Author: Patrick White
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590170024
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 657
Book Description
Patrick White's brilliant 1961 novel, set in an Australian suburb, intertwines four deeply different lives. An Aborigine artist, a Holocaust survivor, a beatific washerwoman, and a childlike heiress are each blessed—and stricken—with visionary experiences that may or may not allow them to transcend the machinations of their fellow men. Tender and lacerating, pure and profane, subtle and sweeping, Riders in the Chariot is one of the Nobel Prize winner's boldest books.
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590170024
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 657
Book Description
Patrick White's brilliant 1961 novel, set in an Australian suburb, intertwines four deeply different lives. An Aborigine artist, a Holocaust survivor, a beatific washerwoman, and a childlike heiress are each blessed—and stricken—with visionary experiences that may or may not allow them to transcend the machinations of their fellow men. Tender and lacerating, pure and profane, subtle and sweeping, Riders in the Chariot is one of the Nobel Prize winner's boldest books.
Pete's Disappearing Act
Author: Jenny Tripp
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152061777
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
When Pete the performing poodle and Rita the chimp are swept away from the circus in a tornado, they encounter frightening adventures--and make new friends--as they try to return home.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152061777
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
When Pete the performing poodle and Rita the chimp are swept away from the circus in a tornado, they encounter frightening adventures--and make new friends--as they try to return home.
Secret Under Pittsburgh
Author: Jon Klein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732714113
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 404
Book Description
It's 1975, and three young boys stumble onto an abandoned mineshaft in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Follow renowned archaeologist Peter Hawn and the boys, as they deal with a mysterious device, and the men who will kill to keep it their own.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732714113
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 404
Book Description
It's 1975, and three young boys stumble onto an abandoned mineshaft in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Follow renowned archaeologist Peter Hawn and the boys, as they deal with a mysterious device, and the men who will kill to keep it their own.
The Heart of June
Author: Mason Radkoff
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615869704
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Fiction. Walter Farnham is on a mission. Only he doesn't know it. Living above the garage of his former wife and her new husband, Walt has never been one to finish things, not even a divorce. In fact, the closest he's come to a steady anything is as caretaker for Hardwick, the grand old family home of the heiress, Miss June Bonwell Creighton. Although Miss June is a stern mistress, Walt responds to her demands with good-natured indulgence. It was Miss June, after all, who took the motherless boy under her wing so many years ago. But now, well into her eighties, Miss June is running out of time to make Walt into the son she never had ... and for Walt to show her that he is the man she believes him to be. Bonded by a routine of affectionate banter and soft chiding, neither character is prepared to acknowledge that their relationship conceals a deeper problem a shared reluctance to fully embrace the present, Walt through systematically refusing to complete anything, and Miss June by residing in memories of her lost love and lost life ... until, that is, the young and accomplished Gwen Thompson steps into their world and irrevocably alters the carefully constructed pas de deux that is life at Hardwick. Mason Radkoff has brought us a book brimming with wit and charm and filled with characters so engaging you'll need to pinch yourself to realize you haven't actually met them. A story filled with poignant encounters and madcap adventures, THE HEART OF JUNE traces the surprising relationship between a wayward handyman and a crusty octogenarian as they discover together that what really matters in life was right in front of them all along. This generous and brightly imagined book will have you laughing and crying and smiling ear to ear. A story about the debts and obligations we owe one another, and about the surprising satisfaction of settling them, THE HEART OF JUNE is an unforgettable story about the transformative power of loyalty and love. "Mason Radkoff's moving debut novel THE HEART OF JUNE is a literary masterpiece. Radkoff renders his flawed yet bighearted characters with such warmth, compassion and charm that I'm still thinking about them, long after turning the last page." Amy Greene "Walt Farnham, the handyman hero of THE HEART OF JUNE, is a good man whose life is in serious need of repair but knows it's sometimes better to enjoy what we have than mourn what's lost. Mason Radkoff's debut is sweet and funny and wise, besides being a deeply-felt love-letter to Pittsburgh, past and present." Stewart O'Nan "THE HEART OF JUNE carefully illuminates the lives we craft for ourselves and the implications of things left unfinished, plans cut short. With gorgeously crafted prose and the rich history of Pittsburgh as its backdrop, Mason Radkoff weaves a generous tale that had me spellbound from the start." Eugene Cross"
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615869704
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Fiction. Walter Farnham is on a mission. Only he doesn't know it. Living above the garage of his former wife and her new husband, Walt has never been one to finish things, not even a divorce. In fact, the closest he's come to a steady anything is as caretaker for Hardwick, the grand old family home of the heiress, Miss June Bonwell Creighton. Although Miss June is a stern mistress, Walt responds to her demands with good-natured indulgence. It was Miss June, after all, who took the motherless boy under her wing so many years ago. But now, well into her eighties, Miss June is running out of time to make Walt into the son she never had ... and for Walt to show her that he is the man she believes him to be. Bonded by a routine of affectionate banter and soft chiding, neither character is prepared to acknowledge that their relationship conceals a deeper problem a shared reluctance to fully embrace the present, Walt through systematically refusing to complete anything, and Miss June by residing in memories of her lost love and lost life ... until, that is, the young and accomplished Gwen Thompson steps into their world and irrevocably alters the carefully constructed pas de deux that is life at Hardwick. Mason Radkoff has brought us a book brimming with wit and charm and filled with characters so engaging you'll need to pinch yourself to realize you haven't actually met them. A story filled with poignant encounters and madcap adventures, THE HEART OF JUNE traces the surprising relationship between a wayward handyman and a crusty octogenarian as they discover together that what really matters in life was right in front of them all along. This generous and brightly imagined book will have you laughing and crying and smiling ear to ear. A story about the debts and obligations we owe one another, and about the surprising satisfaction of settling them, THE HEART OF JUNE is an unforgettable story about the transformative power of loyalty and love. "Mason Radkoff's moving debut novel THE HEART OF JUNE is a literary masterpiece. Radkoff renders his flawed yet bighearted characters with such warmth, compassion and charm that I'm still thinking about them, long after turning the last page." Amy Greene "Walt Farnham, the handyman hero of THE HEART OF JUNE, is a good man whose life is in serious need of repair but knows it's sometimes better to enjoy what we have than mourn what's lost. Mason Radkoff's debut is sweet and funny and wise, besides being a deeply-felt love-letter to Pittsburgh, past and present." Stewart O'Nan "THE HEART OF JUNE carefully illuminates the lives we craft for ourselves and the implications of things left unfinished, plans cut short. With gorgeously crafted prose and the rich history of Pittsburgh as its backdrop, Mason Radkoff weaves a generous tale that had me spellbound from the start." Eugene Cross"
Jane Grey Swisshelm
Author: Sylvia D. Hoffert
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807875880
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Nineteenth-century newspaper editor Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815-1884) was an unconventionally ambitious woman. While she struggled in private to be a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, she publicly critiqued and successfully challenged gender conventions that restricted her personal behavior, limited her political and economic opportunities, and attempted to silence her voice. As the owner and editor of newspapers in Pittsburgh; St. Cloud, Minnesota; and Washington, D.C.; and as one of the founders of the Minnesota Republican Party, Swisshelm negotiated a significant place for herself in the male-dominated world of commerce, journalism, and politics. How she accomplished this feat; what expressive devices she used; what social, economic, and political tensions resulted from her efforts; and how those tensions were resolved are the central questions examined in this biography. Sylvia Hoffert arranges the book topically, rather than chronologically, to include Swisshelm in the broader issues of the day, such as women's involvement in politics and religion, their role in the workplace, and marriage. Rescuing this prominent feminist from obscurity, Hoffert shows how Swisshelm laid the groundwork for the "New Woman" of the turn of the century.
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807875880
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Nineteenth-century newspaper editor Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815-1884) was an unconventionally ambitious woman. While she struggled in private to be a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, she publicly critiqued and successfully challenged gender conventions that restricted her personal behavior, limited her political and economic opportunities, and attempted to silence her voice. As the owner and editor of newspapers in Pittsburgh; St. Cloud, Minnesota; and Washington, D.C.; and as one of the founders of the Minnesota Republican Party, Swisshelm negotiated a significant place for herself in the male-dominated world of commerce, journalism, and politics. How she accomplished this feat; what expressive devices she used; what social, economic, and political tensions resulted from her efforts; and how those tensions were resolved are the central questions examined in this biography. Sylvia Hoffert arranges the book topically, rather than chronologically, to include Swisshelm in the broader issues of the day, such as women's involvement in politics and religion, their role in the workplace, and marriage. Rescuing this prominent feminist from obscurity, Hoffert shows how Swisshelm laid the groundwork for the "New Woman" of the turn of the century.
Empty Mansions
Author: Bill Dedman
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345534522
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Praise for Empty Mansions “An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity.”—The New York Times “An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol.”—The Daily Beast “Fascinating . . . [a] haunting true-life tale.”—People “One of those incredible stories that you didn’t even know existed. It filled a void.”—Jon Stewart, The Daily Show “Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345534522
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Praise for Empty Mansions “An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity.”—The New York Times “An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol.”—The Daily Beast “Fascinating . . . [a] haunting true-life tale.”—People “One of those incredible stories that you didn’t even know existed. It filled a void.”—Jon Stewart, The Daily Show “Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)