Published in 2024
384 pages
Rebecca Godfrey (1967–2022) was an award-winning novelist and journalist. Her books include The Torn Skirt, finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the award-winning true-crime story Under the Bridge. Godfrey earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and taught writing at Columbia University. She lived with her husband and daughter in upstate New York.
Leslie Jamison’s books include The Empathy Exams, The Recovering, the novel The Gin Closet, and the memoir Splinters. She teaches at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
What is this book about?
A dazzling, richly imagined novel about Peggy Guggenheim—a story of art, family, love, and becoming oneself—by the award-winning author of Under the Bridge, now a Hulu limited series starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone
“I was a liberated woman long before there was a name for it” Peggy Guggenheim
VENICE, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. Hers has been a thrilling, tragic, near-impossible journey. She has defied every expectation, followed her heart, and finally found contentment. She is independent. She is a true original. And she’ll never stop believing in the transformative power of art.
Peggy is fourteen when her father dies on the Titanic and her cloistered life is turned upside down. The youngest daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy is determined to pursue a life of passion and personal freedom. But unexpected restrictions come with her vast fortune.
As society changes and war sweeps through Europe, she navigates the decadent, sexist and anti-Semitic art worlds of New York and Paris. She loves and is loved – sometimes for herself, often for her money – yet no-one ever takes her intellect, talent or vision seriously. Until she learns to believe in it herself.
Rebecca Godfrey’s final book – completed by her friend, the acclaimed bestseller Leslie Jamison, following Godfrey’s death in 2022 – brings to life the singular woman who helped make the Guggenheim name synonymous with art and genius.
