num_pages: 304
description: A riveting and prismatic novel of the eternally enigmatic Coco Chanel in the aftermath of World War II.Though her name is synonymous with elegance and chic the iconic Coco Chanel had a complicated dark side and in late August 1944 as World War II drew to a close she was arrested and interrogated on charges of treason to France. Many of the facts are lost to history partly through Chanel's own obfuscation but this much is the charges grew out of her war-time romance with a German spy and one morning two soldiers from the French Forces of the Interiorthe loose band of Resistance fighters soldiers and private citizens who took up arms in the wake of the Liberation of Parisled Chanel from her suite at the Ritz Hotel in Paris to an undisclosed location for questioning.What transpired during her interrogation who was present and why she was set free when so many other women whod been involved with German men (willingly or otherwise) had their heads shaved or were imprisoned remains a mystery. In this brilliantly insightful and compulsively readable novel from the author of I am Madame X Gioia Diliberto explores the motivations of this complex woman and portrays the gripping battle of wits that could have been her interrogation. Was Chanel truly a collaborator? Though the Occupation of France offered a stark contrast between good and evil few people are wholly heroes or villains in wartime. Most citizens as the writer Andr Gide noted were like old shoes floating in murky battered and torn riding the turbulent flow just trying to survive. By turns raw and vulnerable steely and flawed Chanel emerges from these pages as a woman who owns her decisions no matter the consequences. Rich with history and filled with emotional truths Coco at the Ritz is a story about the choices one woman made when the stakes were the highest. In todays world it is a cautionary tale about the necessity of standing against evil when it stares you in the face.
language: English
title: Coco at the Ritz
publisher: Pegasus Books