Hitler and My Mother-in-Law
Format:Hardback
Publisher:OR Books
Publishing:18th Dec '25
£14.99
This title is due to be published on 18th December, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Hitler and My Mother-in-Law is a riveting memoir that explores the intersection of truth—both familial and political—through the colorful and complex life of the author's mother-in-law.
In a time like our own of intense propaganda and manipulation, the only WWII female correspondent who covered both theaters of war, Pat Hartwell identified Hitler from a pile of ashes for the US military, and the troops awarded her with a million-dollar painting from Hitler's study. Really?
She was the only woman in the CBS news room, assistant to the head of the Office of War Information, VP of one of the largest public relations companies in the world, third in command of UNICEF where she convinced Matisse to provide artwork for free, editor of her own Arizona newspaper where she hustled naïve art on the side, and eventually head of the Hawai’ian arts council, a state of extremely complex political and social stakeholders, where she left a legacy of preventing art fraud. Her story is a fascinating journey through history, art, and deception.
The memoir delves into the art of invention and the shapeshifting of memory and truth, interwoven with humorous yet profound moments. It examines the comical Soviet efforts to conceal Hitler's death, McCarthy's investigations, and the author's own struggle to compete with both her mother and her mother-in-law. Threaded throughout are insights into organizations that malign the word "mother" and, of course, plenty of mother-in-law jokes.
With meticulous research and a unique perspective, Hitler and My Mother-in-Law challenges the boundaries of narrative honesty, offering a powerful exploration of propaganda, identity, and the personal reckoning that defines the art of memoir. It's a gripping mix of history, family, humor, and a biting reflection on the politics of truth—past and present.
"What a bold, vibrant, and intensely original book this is."
—Joan Silber, author of Mercy
"Wit, imagination, and marked acumen about our on-going preoccupation with censorship, witch hunts, and truth-telling vs. fakery makes this provocative memoir a highly engaging read."
—Carolyn Burke, author of Lee Miller
"Highly researched, intimate, and always engaging, Svoboda’s memoir teaches us to appreciate both 'the contours of what you don’t know' and, more than that, 'the mysteries.'"
—Jehanne Dubrow, author of Civilians and Exhibitions: Essays on Art & Atrocity
"Canny, meandering, and revelatory, it’s a remarkable family memoir that stretches across major developments of the 20th century while questioning how the truth gets produced. Readers will be riveted."
—Publishers Weekly
"A sharp, unsettling memoir that begins with a family legend and expands into looted art, Cold War secrets, and the lives women aren’t allowed to tell. Terese Svoboda writes with wit, rigor, and emotional bite. I read it as a journalist and daughter-in-law — and couldn’t look away."
—Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Aviator and the Showman
"A breathtakingly broad look at the history and significance of war and restitution, art and ownership, family and responsibility, truth and memory."
—Carolyn Edy, author of The Woman Correspondent, the U.S. Military, and the Press, 1846–1947
PRAISE FOR TERESE SVOBODA:
"One of our best writers.”
—Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Sleep Donation
“One of the writers you would be tempted to read regardless of the setting of the period or the plot or even the genre.”
—Bloomsbury Review
“A true original.”
—Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel
PRAISE FOR TERESE SVOBODA'S PREVIOUS WORKS:
“Svoboda's prose is...stuffed to the brim — with invention, surprise and the sweaty mystery of whom we get tangled up with, and why.”
—New York Times
“Exquisite....[Svoboda] crafts singular depictions of her characters’ inner worlds.”
—Publishers Weekly
ISBN: 9781682196519
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
272 pages