Allison Pataki
Allison Pataki (born November 25, 1984) is an American author and journalist. Her five historical novels are "The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America", "The Accidental Empress", "Sisi, Empress on Her Own", "Where the Light Falls", and "The Queen's Fortune". "Beauty in the Broken Places" is her first memoir. Biography. Pataki was born in New York, and is the daughter of former New York State Governor and 2016 presidential candidate, George Pataki and his wife Libby (née Rowland). Allison attended Yale University, where she majored in English. She met  her husband, David Levy, during her sophomore year at Yale, and they married in June 2012. In 2015, Pataki co-founded reConnect Hungary, an educational and social immersion program for young adults of Hungarian heritage, who are born in the United States or Canada, to gain a better understanding of their Hungarian heritage. Work. The Revolutionary War history of her town inspired Pataki to write her first book "The Traitor's Wife" based on the life of Benedict Arnold. The book explored a romantic triangle involving Arnold and also his roles in the Revolutionary War. Her book became a "New  York Times" bestseller. "Kirkus Reviews" wrote that "Pataki delivers an admirable book focused on the betrayal." Pataki's second and third books, also New York Times bestsellers, were "The Accidental Empress" and "Sisi: Empress On Her Own", inspired by Pataki's family roots in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. "Kirkus Reviews" felt that "The Accidental Empress" did not "stray far from the conventions of novels about royalty." "Publishers Weekly" wrote that the historical research for "Sisi" was "evident as she deftly explores the complex life of a woman who was both loved and hated by those whom she ruled." "Kirkus  Reviews" wrote that "Sisi" was "a satisfying saga of the late Habsburg period." Pataki's fourth book, "Where the Light Falls", was released on July 11, 2017, and is co-authored with her brother Owen Pataki. "Kirkus Reviews" wrote that this book was also well-researched, but "sheer talkiness too often overpower the narrative, and the swashbucking close is too little, too late." Pataki has written for ABCNews.com, The Huffington Post, FoxNews.com, Travel Girl, and other media outlets. In 2016, Pataki wrote a piece for The New York Times detailing her family's experience with traumatic brain injury and recovery . In 2015, Pataki's husband, David Levy, suffered a near-fatal stroke while the couple were on board a flight to Seattle. Published in 2018, her book "Beauty in the Broken Places" chronicled that experience.