Overview

New York Public Library Best Comics for Adults 2025 Most Anticipated Graphics Novels For Summer 2025 - Comics Beat On April 7, 1928, Maria Lani blew into Paris claiming to be a famous German actress and proceeded to seduce the cultural elite with her undeniable charisma and strangely enticing enigmatic aura. She persuaded fifty artists -Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Georges-Henri Rouault, Fernand Léger and Suzanne Valadon among them- to immortalize her in paintings and sculptures, which would appear as an important plot device in a forthcoming film. Unveiled as an exhibition in New York, the art works traveled to Chicago, London, Berlin, Rotterdam, and Paris. But, in 1931, as legend eventually had it, she and her husband Max Abramowicz vanished without a trace, and so did the art. The film was never made. The Woman With Fifty Faces is about uncovering as much of the truth about Maria Lani as possible. The images that cascade through the book are stunningly beautiful, deeply compassionate, and farcically grotesque, capturing the essence of Lani's life. From Poland's antisemitic pogroms to the vulgar glamour and decadence of 1920s Paris to the Nazi occupation of France in the '40s, the tumultuous Europe Lani traverses becomes nearly as much of a character as Lani herself. Jonathan Lackman spent two decades researching Lani's life and Zachary J. Pinson spent 5,000 hours putting pen to paper. The result is a masterful collaboration about identity and the power and limits of reinvention.

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9781324130659

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Reviews

""If Kim Addonizio’s latest book of poems, Exit Opera, was an actual opera, the audience would never stop throwing flowers at her feet. Her voice is razor-sharp, filled with both wit and weariness. Addonizio confronts death without flinching, but she doesn’t let it have the final word."" -- Debbra Palmer - The New York Journal of Books

""There are two kinds of opera goers: those who make a mad dash for the exit as soon as the singer leaves the stage, and those who stick around for the curtain call. If Kim Addonizio’s latest book of poems, Exit Opera, was an actual opera, the audience would never stop throwing flowers at her feet. Her voice is razor-sharp, filled with both wit and weariness. Addonizio confronts death without flinching, but she doesn’t let it have the final word."" -- Debbra Palmer - New York Journal of Books ""Like a rum cake that gets you drunk after one slice, Exit Opera is strong and bitter and irresistible. Over and over, it repeats the question what does it mean to be alive?"" -- Erica Goss - Pedestal Magazine ""Writing poetry or opera may not make you sweat, but it is still hard work to tug back against an overwhelming darkness, to make something beautiful that continues to gesture towards the dark from which it was born."" -- Susanna Lang - Rhino Poetry

Writing poetry or opera may not make you sweat, but it is still hard work to tug back against an overwhelming darkness, to make something beautiful that continues to gesture towards the dark from which it was born.--Susanna Lang ""Rhino Poetry"" Like a rum cake that gets you drunk after one slice, Exit Opera is strong and bitter and irresistible. Over and over, it repeats the question what does it mean to be alive?--Erica Goss ""Pedestal Magazine"" There are two kinds of opera goers: those who make a mad dash for the exit as soon as the singer leaves the stage, and those who stick around for the curtain call. If Kim Addonizio's latest book of poems, Exit Opera, was an actual opera, the audience would never stop throwing flowers at her feet. Her voice is razor-sharp, filled with both wit and weariness. Addonizio confronts death without flinching, but she doesn't let it have the final word.--Debbra Palmer ""New York Journal of Books""

Author Information

Kim Addonizio is the author of eight poetry collections and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion and Ordinary Genius. Her collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Oakland, California.

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