This is a book I've wanted to read for some time. Audrey Hepburn was such an iconic figure, but I never realized her multi-layered significance until reading this book. After telling Audrey's story about the "Hunger Winter" (the appalling winter when there was virtually nothing to eat and the Dutch citizens were dying {at a rate of 500/week}), the author jumps forward and talks about Audrey working as a UNICEF ambassador to Somalia (where starvation was everywhere). Audrey understood hunger because she had faced it in her early life. The description of what happens to the body is genuinely gripping.
This well-researched book talks about Audrey Hepburn's war years with snippets of how it affected the rest of her 63 years. Audrey worked and studied to be a ballerina, but she lacked the food to continue because of the war and its deprivations. This book doesn't cover Hepburn's Hollywood years. Instead, it shows poignantly how the wartime experiences molded the star. This is a powerful book. It talks about the Dutch people and how they suffered under the Nazis during the war years. I don't recall reading a book from this viewpoint before, and I found it moving.
This well-researched book talks about Audrey Hepburn's war years with snippets of how it affected the rest of her 63 years. Audrey worked and studied to be a ballerina, but she lacked the food to continue because of the war and its deprivations. This book doesn't cover Hepburn's Hollywood years. Instead, it shows poignantly how the wartime experiences molded the star. This is a powerful book. It talks about the Dutch people and how they suffered under the Nazis during the war years. I don't recall reading a book from this viewpoint before, and I found it moving.
