Book excerpt: This National Book Award–winning author’s autobiographical novel is a “layered portrait of a family and the historical eras it lived through” (The Boston Globe). “Tuck is a genius.” —Los Angeles Book Review Her father is a German movie producer who lives in Italy. Her mother is a beautiful, artistically talented woman who resides in New York. As their child, Liliane’s life is divided between those two very different worlds—worlds that inspire her to find herself in both the present and in her ancestors’ pasts. A shy and observant only child with a vivid imagination, Liliane finds herself exploring her family’s vibrant history—which includes such renowned and diverse figures as the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the tragic Mary Queen of Scots—and piecing together their vivid lives. And in doing so, what is revealed is an astonishing and riveting exploration of self, humanity, and family. Told with Lily Tuck’s inimitable elegance and peppered with documents, photos, and a rich and varied array of characters, “this autobiographical novel creates a portrait of the writer as a young woman” (The New Yorker).