Monascella
The moving portrait of an underappreciated daughter
Traumatised by a serious accident at sea during the Second World War, Monika Mann, the daughter of Katia and Thomas Mann, always lingered in the shadow of her shimmering siblings, considered a lazy, talentless misfit. Cast adrift, she wandered aimlessly through her life until she discovered the captivating island of Capri. There, during her intimate relationship with Antonio Spadaro, son of a fishing family, she experienced the kind of security that her family had denied her throughout her life. Based on previously unpublished letters, Kerstin Holzer tells of Monika Mann’s probably happiest years: of the self-discovery of a disregarded woman; her recognition as a feuilleton writer; of the great mother-daughter drama; and ultimately of the healing power of love.
- Based on previously unpublished letters and postcards
- A very modern story of a strong-willed woman defying convention and her own family
- For readers of Tilmann Lahme, Volker Weidermann and Monika Czernin
Kerstin Holzer, born in 1967, studied Politics and lives in Munich. She worked as a journalist for Focus, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Madame, among other publications. She was also Madame’s acting editor-in-chief until July 2021. She is the author of the SPIEGEL bestseller ‘Elisabeth Mann Borgese – a biography’, as well as ‘Mein Weg zu den Sternen’ (‘My Way to the Stars’), co-written with Léa Linster.
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