Pannonica de Koenigswarter has everything a woman of her station could want in 1950s England. Born into the legendary Rothschild banking family and married to a Baron, she lives surrounded by wealth, children, and social position. Then she hears Thelonious Monk play jazz. The music transforms her completely. Nica walks away from her marriage and crosses an ocean to find the pianist who changed her world. Her journey takes her from English manor houses to African battlefields, through the darkness of Holocaust-era Europe, and finally into the vibrant chaos of New York's jazz clubs. Hannah Rothschild reconstructs the remarkable story of her own great-aunt through personal memories, extensive interviews, and years of careful investigation into a woman who chose passion over propriety.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir, music
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, passion-over-propriety
Setting: England, New York, Africa, Europe
Period: 1950s
Paperback · Paragon
Content warnings: war