The touching portrait of the underestimated daughter

Monika Mann, daughter of Thomas Mann, always lived in the shadow of her dazzling siblings and was considered a lazy, untalented oddball, traumatized by a severe shipwreck during World War II. Aimlessly, she wandered through her life until she discovered the place of her longing, Capri, in the 1950s. There, in her intimate relationship with Antonio Spadaro, the son of a fishing family, she found the security that her own family had denied her throughout her life. Based on previously unpublished letters, Kerstin Holzer tells for the first time about Monika Mann's happiest years, the self-discovery of a disregarded individual, her recognition as a cultural journalist, the great mother-daughter drama, and the healing power of love.

“Excitingly written, artfully composed, psychologically brilliant: The odyssey of a woman through a life of homelessness, loss, and scandalous familial ostracism, who nonetheless found poetry and love in the seclusion of a Mediterranean island paradise. The reading electrified me until the last line.” Frido Mann

“All the women who stand in the shadow of such great men: Let’s finally bring them to light! Kerstin Holzer gives Monika Mann a highly interesting tribute that acknowledges her personality.” Mareike Fallwickl.