The Life You Had Imagined
From Imperial Vienna to Hollywood, the mystery of Empress Elisabeth of Austria's secret daughter
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Ever since childhood, Nelly Alard has had two passions: Empress Elisabeth of Austria-the legendary Sisi--and Hollywood movie stars. When she discovers the story of Elissa Landi, a 1930s film star whose mother, Countess Karoline Zanardi Lands, claimed to be the empress's secret child, born during a hunting trip in France in 1882. Alard decides she needs to know more. After years of thorough research, she manages to find Elissa Landi's daughter, who tells her she believes her grandmother's tale and hands Alard the keys to a behemoth of a family archive, within which lies- or so Aland hopes, alon...
Ever since childhood, Nelly Alard has had two passions: Empress Elisabeth of Austria-the legendary Sisi--and Hollywood movie stars. When she discovers the story of Elissa Landi, a 1930s film star whose mother, Countess Karoline Zanardi Lands, claimed to be the empress's secret child, born during a hunting trip in France in 1882. Alard decides she needs to know more. After years of thorough research, she manages to find Elissa Landi's daughter, who tells her she believes her grandmother's tale and hands Alard the keys to a behemoth of a family archive, within which lies- or so Aland hopes, along with the reader-the definitive proof that Karoline was telling the truth. While recounting her investigation and retracing the amazing lives of Karoline and Elissa, Alard also looks back at her own career as an actress, from her promising debuts in Hollywood to her first literary efforts, all related to the empress in one way or another. As we follow Alard's account of this lifelong quest we become aware of an intricate web of coincidences and echoes between her own existence and those of her three heroines-Elisabeth, Karoline, and Elissa Set in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, London and Vienna among other places, and in spite of its rich and complex historical subject matter, award-winning author Nelly Alard's third novel intertwines different epochs and characters with such fluidity that they all come to life, vivid and authentic. Full of surprising twists, humorous details, and personal insights, it is as brilliant in its formal aspects as it is thought-provoking and surprising in content. Published in France by Gallimard in 2020, it was enthusiastically received by both audience and press : "Ambitious, subtle, engrossing" (LES ECHOS) "A gripping investigation shot through with cheerful humor" (ELLE MAGAZINE) "An enthralling quest that is also a superb self-portrait in which the personal lives and destinies of these uncommon heroines intermingle and mirror one another." (LE FIGARO) "A fascinating investigation where the lies bleed into the truth. Surprising - different from anything you've read before" (L'OBS) "A subtle storyline worthy of the most spine-tingling thrillers" (BIBA MAGAZINE)
