Ania Szado
Forfatter af Studio Saint-Ex
Om forfatteren
Image credit: Szado's photo from author's page on facebook.
Værker af Ania Szado
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Almen Viden
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- Canada
- Fødested
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Bopæl
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Uddannelse
- Graduated, Ontario College of Art and Design
MFA, Creative Writing - University of British Columbia - Kort biografi
- Ania Szado is the author of STUDIO SAINT-EX, a novel exploring the destructive and redemptive power of creativity and love through the entanglements of ambitious young fashion designer Mignonne Lachapelle, author/pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and his fiery estranged wife, as "Saint-Ex" is writing THE LITTLE PRINCE in early-'40s Manhattan. STUDIO SAINT-EX is forthcoming in 2013 from Penguin Canada and Knopf USA. It has also been sold for publication in Russia, Italy and Poland.
Ania’s novel BEGINNING OF WAS (Penguin Canada) was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Best First Book, Canada/Caribbean), nominated for the international Kiriyama Prize, and named a NOW Magazine Top Ten book. It was critically acclaimed as “a skillful debut” demonstrating “an immense talent for resonant and surprising imagery” (Quill & Quire), a “haunting debut novel” (Toronto Star) and a “welcome addition to the range of contemporary Canadian novels that explore survival in the face of despair’ (National Post.)
Ania's short fiction has been nominated for the Journey Prize and the National Magazine Awards. Her story “Camping at Wal-Mart” appeared in ALL SLEEK AND SKIMMING (Orca, ed. Lisa Heggum), an anthology of YA/adult crossover stories that was named to the New York Public Library's prestigious “Books for the Teen Age 2007” list. Her non-fiction credits include The Globe & Mail and Flare Magazine.
Ania is a graduate of Ontario College of Art & Design and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Szado has taught creative writing at Humber College. She was born in Hamilton, Ontario and lives in Toronto.
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Antoine de Saint-Exupery, his unlikely lover -- oh, how she adored him, though his wife wouldn't leave him alone, that bitch -- and his unstable (meaning loud and possessive) wife.
This novel is beautifully written and evokes the mood of pre-war America very well. I didn't, though, love it as much as other reviewers. I found the story stretched beyond what I could believe at times and the interactions between characters often appeared over "acted". While writing in multiple voices has become the norm in fiction these days, I found the shifts between first and third person detracted from the story -- as if the author resorted to this style rather than developing her story through it.… (mere)
Mignonne Lachapelle has returned to New York City after a year home in Montreal with her mother. She arrives in the wake of a rather bleak discovery: one of her senior-year professors at her fashion school has stolen her designs for a magnificent butterfly-inspired collection, and is pandering it as her own.
Returning to confront Madam Fiche, the plagiarist, she is unexpectedly hired by her as an assistant for her Atellier* Fiche, a job that Mignonne only accepts as a last resort after a number of other fashion houses turn her down for any kind of design position.
It is a meeting of desperations - Mignonne's for a career, and Madam Fiche's for help; and when these women begin to collaborate, it is clear who will be the true beneficiary of their work.
But a forced and difficult collaboration with Madam Fiche is not the only issue at hand in Studio Saint-Ex; Mignonne is also confronted by the arrival of her former lover--a married man, a member of the French Air Force, and a French aristocrat. His friends call him "Saint-Ex," Mignonne calls him Antoine, and his wife Consuelo calls him Tonio. But readers will know him as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the beloved author of The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince, 1943).
Driven by the combined forces of ambition and desire, Szado's fictionalized history is an excursion into the creation of The Little Prince as well as an examination of the fashion world of the 1940s. At first, I believed it was simply the latter. The infamous author's name didn't manage to ring any bells in my head. It wasn't until Antoine begins telling Mignonne the story of the boy he's been sketching on napkins for months that I caught on. But it didn't matter, because Szado's story is beautifully told, even if it hadn't been rooted in historical fact. The seduction and the romance are all real, and beautifully intertwined with the drama from the pressure of the fashion and literary industries.
Mignonne exists in a constant state of tug-o-war between her two loves, and the reader will likely find it difficult to root for either one over the other. Eventually, this conflict leads to what could be a mutually beneficial collaboration with Antoine's wife, Consuela, whose serpentine sensibility threatens to tear the entire fabric of Mignonne's reality to shreds.
This is a very quick read, rife with the kind of imagery that can suck you into a story and never let go. And lovers of The Little Prince will, I'm sure, be enamored by this fictionalized account of the great author, his tempestuous wife, and the love that could have been.
*Atellier, meaning "studio" or "workshop" in French.
www.theliterarygothamite.com… (mere)
Returning to confront Madam Fiche, the plagiarist, she is unexpectedly hired by her as an assistant for her Atellier* Fiche, a job that Mignonne only accepts as a last resort after a number of other fashion houses turn her down for any kind of design position.
It is a meeting of desperations - Mignonne's for a career, and Madam Fiche's for help; and when these women begin to collaborate, it is clear who will be the true beneficiary of their work.
But a forced and difficult collaboration with Madam Fiche is not the only issue at hand in Studio Saint-Ex; Mignonne is also confronted by the arrival of her former lover--a married man, a member of the French Air Force, and a French aristocrat. His friends call him "Saint-Ex," Mignonne calls him Antoine, and his wife Consuelo calls him Tonio. But readers will know him as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the beloved author of The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince, 1943).
Driven by the combined forces of ambition and desire, Szado's fictionalized history is an excursion into the creation of The Little Prince as well as an examination of the fashion world of the 1940s. At first, I believed it was simply the latter. The infamous author's name didn't manage to ring any bells in my head. It wasn't until Antoine begins telling Mignonne the story of the boy he's been sketching on napkins for months that I caught on. But it didn't matter, because Szado's story is beautifully told, even if it hadn't been rooted in historical fact. The seduction and the romance are all real, and beautifully intertwined with the drama from the pressure of the fashion and literary industries.
Mignonne exists in a constant state of tug-o-war between her two loves, and the reader will likely find it difficult to root for either one over the other. Eventually, this conflict leads to what could be a mutually beneficial collaboration with Antoine's wife, Consuela, whose serpentine sensibility threatens to tear the entire fabric of Mignonne's reality to shreds.
This is a very quick read, rife with the kind of imagery that can suck you into a story and never let go. And lovers of The Little Prince will, I'm sure, be enamored by this fictionalized account of the great author, his tempestuous wife, and the love that could have been.
*Atellier, meaning "studio" or "workshop" in French.
www.theliterarygothamite.com… (mere)
Statistikker
- Værker
- 3
- Medlemmer
- 95
- Popularitet
- #197,646
- Vurdering
- 3.7
- Anmeldelser
- 9
- ISBN
- 15
I listened to the audio version of the book and learned how to properly pronounce Antoine de Saint-Expurery name the author of one of my all time favorite books "The Little Prince." The book is fiction but based on the lives of Consuelo and Saint-Expurery fiery marriage and our fictional Mignonne an upcoming New York fashion designer who is drawn to Saint-Ex and must also work with his wife Consuelo. The back drop is WWII and the New York fashion world which is bigger than Paris during this time period.
The story is told from the perspective of the two women vying for Saint-Ex. Very intriguing and fascinating look at the fashion world and a brief glimpse at the life of Saint-Ex. I know wish to find a biography and learn more.
… (mere)