This “erudite, subversive” novel puts an ingenious new spin on the enigmatic woman at the center of a historic royal scandal (The Guardian, UK).
Reviled by the British as a social-climbing seductress even as Time magazine named her its 1936 Woman of the Year, Wallis Simpson was the American socialite whose affair with King Edward VIII led him to abdicate the throne on the eve of WWII. In this fanciful novel written in the form of a fictional memoir, Auspitz imagines an alternative history in which Simpson was encouraged by Allied statesmen to remove defeatist, pro-German Edward from the throne, forever altering the course of the war.
A comically unreliable narrator who knows more than she realizes, and reveals more than she knows, Simpson leads us from historic treaties and military campaigns to dinner parties and cruises as she describes encounters with everyone from Duff and Diana Cooper to Charles Lindbergh, Coco Chanel, and Hitler—all the while acting as a willing but seemingly oblivious pawn of international intrigue.
A rare blend of diplomacy and dalliance, fashion and fascists, this meticulously researched satire offers insightful entertainment and leaves us speculating: who really brought about the abdication . . . and what were they wearing?
