Mitz
Sigrid Nunez, Peter Cameron (afterword)Praised as a "gifted storyteller" by the Chicago Tribune, the acclaimed author of A Feather on the Breath of God & Naked Sleeper delivers an enchanting fictional memoir about Leonard & Virginia Woolf's pet marmoset.
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In 1934 "A sickly pathetic marmoset" named Mitz came into the care of Leonard Woolf. He nursed her back to health & from then on was rarely seen without the amusing monkey on his shoulder. A ubiquitous presence in Bloomsbury society, Mitz moved with the Wollfs between their homes in London & Sussex. She developed her own special relationships with the family's cocker spaniels & with the various members of the Woolfs' circle, among them T.S. Eliot & Vita Sackville-West. Mitz even played a vital role in helping the Woolfs escape a close call with Nazis in Germany just before World War II.
Now, using letters, diaries, & memoirs, award-winning novelist Sigrid Nunez reconstructs this unique creature's life against the fascinating backdrop of Bloomsbury in its twilight years. Tender, affectionate, & filled with humor, Mitz offers a glimpse into a singular time not only marked by the threat of war, the deaths of beloved friends & relations, & Virginia's near-breakdown under the strain of finishing her novel The Years, but also blessed with much happiness & productivity for the literary Woolfs. It is a novel as endearing & unforgettable as Mitz the marmoset herself.
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One of the most respected writers in America today, Sigrid Nunez is the author of the novels Salvation City, The Last of Her Kind, A Feather on the Breath of God, For Rouenna, & the National Book Award–winning The Friend. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. She has been the recipient of several awards, including a Whiting Award, the Rome Prize in Literature, & a Berlin Prize Fellowship.