Publisher Description
Patricia Highsmith's first novel was picked up by Hitchcock and was a world-wide success. Her second novel was meant to tell everything about her true inside and dare what no-one had dared to write before: a lesbian love-story with a happy ending. But when she eventually relented to publish it under a pseudonym, it was a decision that would shape her life more than she could have guessed at the time. Henceforth she would vent her inner life either encoded in her future novels or - unbeknownst to most - in the 18 diaries and 38 notebooks she kept throughout her life. The way she talked about her journals - especially her notebooks - indicates that she always meant to bring them into the open one day. To publish them now means to tell the story of a strong woman battling with the social norms and sexual mores of her time in her own words. Her journals reveal a most complex life that might help explain why her novels were so much more than just crime novels: world literature. For the centenary year of Highsmith's birth in 2021, the first time Patricia Highsmith's personal journals, edited down to 650 pages, will be available to the public.
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About Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) was an American author most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. She wrote more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.
About Caroline Hewitt
Caroline Hewitt loves reading and imagining. Since she couldn’t figure out a way to actually jump inside a novel, acting and adapting are the closest, and most satisfying, ways she has found to inhabit stories—like narrating audiobooks and adapting novels into plays.