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When Pauline Terreehorst bid for a vintage Gucci suitcase at Sotheby's Amsterdam, she had no idea what was inside. After picking up her prize, she found that the case was filled with dresses, fur collars and lace voiles, and accompanied by two brown boxes of postcard albums showing churches and castles in Austria, France, England and Scotland. This curious correspondence was addressed to an Austrian countess, businesswoman and philanthropist called Margarethe Szapáry, and her daughter.
These unexpected family treasures open a window onto a lost world. The Szapárys' social, cultural and political landscape disappeared in the upheavals that seized Europe during the first half of the twentieth century-a time when borders were redrawn, old cities received new names, communities changed loyalties, and the transnational, monarchist aristocrats of Middle Europe had to decide whether to become Germans under Nazi rule.
What did Margarethe choose, when her neighbour Hermann Göring came knocking? What were the consequences for her and her children? And how did her family's suitcase cross war-torn Europe and survive decades of rupture to end up in Terreehorst's hands?
About the author
Pauline Terreehorst is an essayist and former director of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, Utrecht's Centraal Museum, and Eindhoven's Natlab film theatre. Known for her fashion articles and film and photography columns in de Volkskrant, she has helped develop scenarios for the future of living and working for government and business.
Summary
A fascinating portrait of old cosmopolitan Central Europe, and a remarkable woman enduring as evil rises--all through the family belongings hidden in a suitcase.
Report
'Terreehorst's instinct for well-chosen details keeps the story engaging, and she strikes an admirable balance between the texture of the characters' immediate surroundings and the broader arcs of social and political change. While her knowledge of design shines in descriptions of fin-de-siècle mantelpieces and extravagant carved beds, her engrossing history of the development of industrial mining in Silesia displays the book's depth of research.'
TLS
