The Woman Who Shot Mussolini - by Frances Stonor Saunders (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

At 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 7, 1926, a woman stepped out of the crowd on Rome's Campidoglio Square and shot Mussolini at point-blank range. He escaped virtually unscathed. Violet Gibson, who expected to be thanked for her action, was arrested, labeled a "crazy Irish spinster" and a "half-mad mystic"---and promptly forgotten. Now, in an elegant work of reconstruction, Frances Stonor Saunders retrieves this remarkable figure from the lost historical record. In a grand tragic narrative, full of suspense and mystery, conspiracy and back-room diplomacy, she vividly resurrects the life and times of a woman who sought to forestall catastrophe, whatever the cost.

Review Quotes

"Saunders masterfully sketches the European aesthetic and intellectual ferment that followed World War I....She recounts all this with a dry wit, even a jauntiness, that contributes mightily to the book's pleasures." --The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A tour de force informed by the author's keen understanding of the social and political issues that galvanized the times. Moreover, Saunders's knowledge---and use---of English literature to animate Gibson's story gives it an elegance, depth, and sensibility that would have eluded less competent biographers." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Superb...poignant...Its wit and modesty make the book a beguiling detective story and, as such, a meditation on the limits of biography....Saunders writes with a clarity of purpose, an eloquence, and a satiric edge that refresh and astonish." --The Nation

"Absorbing...Saunders tells Violet's story with sympathy and insight. Her research unearths several gems." --Financial Times (UK)

About the Author

Frances Stonor Saunders is the author of The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, which was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award, received the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Memorial Prize, and was translated into ten languages. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, as well as The Guardian and The Independent. She lives in London.