The true(ish) story of the marmoset who ruled Bloomsbury — a jewel of a book from the National Book Award–winning author of The Friend.
In the summer of 1934, a sickly marmoset named Mitz came into the care of Leonard Woolf — and proceeded to take over the household he shared with Virginia. Restored to health, she perched on Leonard's shoulder through the writing of books, the running of the Hogarth Press, dinner parties with the Bloomsbury set, and even a drive across Nazi Germany, where she charmed border guards who might otherwise have looked harder at her Jewish owner.
Drawing on the Woolfs' own letters and diaries, Sigrid Nunez crafts a miniature biography that is at once a portrait of a marriage, a snapshot of literary London between the wars, and one of the most charming animal books ever written — with the gathering darkness of the 1930s always at the window.
About the author
Sigrid Nunez won the National Book Award for The Friend. This beloved early work is reissued by Virago alongside For Rouenna and Naked Sleeper — all three on our shelves.
Perfect for readers of
Virginia Woolf, The Friend, our Library Cat and Cat's People shelf — and anyone who believes small creatures make the best biographers' subjects.
