First published 2014
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild grows up in one of the world's most powerful clans, surrounded by material luxury but starved of personal attention. Born in 1913, she inhabits a gilded cage where marriage offers the only escape. She marries Baron Von Koenigswarter young and bears five children, living in a magnificent Normandy mansion among high society circles filled with magnates, royalty, politicians, intellectuals, and playboys. World War II opens new possibilities for intimate choices in her constrained existence. She discovers the genius of musician Thelonious Monk, who will consume nearly thirty years of her life. One day in 1950, without warning, Nica abandons her entire world and flees to New York. She trades her cosmopolitan friendships for a brilliant community of jazz musicians. Her great-niece Hannah Rothschild penetrates family secrets to separate legend from truth about the Baroness. The search reveals countless facets of a special yet contradictory woman who often reminded others that you only live once.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Normandy, New York
Period: 1913, 1950
350 pages · Paperback · Circe Ediciones, S.L.U.