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Sign up todayStudio Saint-Ex
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Learn moreThis sleek, stylish novel set in 1940s New York, between the shock of Pearl Harbor and the landing of American troops in Europe, is a deft, romantic novel about a wartime love triangle involving a twenty-two-year-old fashion designer poised to launch her career; the French expatriate writer and war pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exup├®ry, who's left his Nazi-occupied country and come to Manhattan for a month, only to stay for two years; and his beautiful, estranged Salvadoran wife determined to win back her husband at all costs—and seductions.
With Paris under occupation by Hitler's troops, New York's Mayor La Guardia has vowed to turn his city into the new fashion capital of the world. A handful of American designers are set to become the industry's brightest names, and Mignonne Lachapelle is determined to be among them. Her ambition and ethics are clear until she falls for the celebrated and tormented adventurer Captain Saint-Exup├®ry.
In New York, Saint-Ex writes a new book on the fall of France, Flight to Arras, and collects (a year late) his National Book Award for Wind, Sand, and Stars. But he suffers under exile and, to distract himself from his malaise, begins work on a new book at his US publisher's offhand suggestion: an exotic fable.
Nothing about Mig's tempestuous, romantic relationship with Saint-Ex is straightforward, but the greatest complication will come in the form of his deceptively simple manuscript about a petit bonhomme in the Sahara Desert fallen to earth on a journey across the planets.
Ania Szado graduated from the Ontario College of Art and the University of British Columbia. Her first novel, Beginning of Was, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her writing has appeared in numerous periodicals, including the Globe and Mail, Flare, and This Magazine. She lives in Toronto.
Read by Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Richard Gilliland, Jamye Grant, Stephen Hoye, Alex Hyde-White, Sunil Malhotra, Arthur Morey, P. J. Ochlan, and Stefan Rudnicki
Reviews
“Gorgeously evokes the fashion scene of 1940s Manhattan and provides a smart, sure-handed glimpse into the hearts and minds of two women in love with literary sensation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A deft examination of love, desire, and ambition.”
“Studio Saint-Ex is an imaginative, sensual exploration of the creation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, set in a moodily evocative 1940s New York. In depicting the breathtaking collision between desire and art, passion and inspiration, Szado spins a tale that will make you view this beloved classic in an entirely different, and very surprising, way.”
“Szado crafts the facts of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's life into an engaging tale of youth, power, and longing set in New York City as the country heads off to WWII…The world of haute couture depicted here overflows with backstabbing, design stealing, and credit-robbing injustice…Neither Szado's shifting points-of-view nor movements through time are seamless, but the love of story within the story is redeeming.”
“This domestic and fashionista drama plays out against de Saint-Exupéry’s protracted attempts to work on his allegorical tale of The Little Prince. High fashion and high drama coexist in equal measure in this insightful novel.”
“An elegantly alluring and poignant love story. Nuanced, written with intimacy and immediacy, it’s a fascinating account of the evolution of the classic children’s novel The Little Prince, framed by the complex relationships of the French writer / war hero Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, his formidably manipulative and fiercely sensual Latin wife, and the young, talented Canadian fashion designer who captivates them both. Spare and beautifully crafted, the novel vividly evokes the world of fashion design and the French ex-pat community in New York during WWII. In a word: magnifique!”
“Szado has created a fascinating time and place and has risen wonderfully to the challenge of portraying real historical characters in fiction—bravo!”
“A novel that is so true and so right that it makes you wonder why nobody has written it before. Studio Saint-Ex is like an ocean undertow: I fell in and could not get out except by gorging on the story as it pulled me toward the final sentence…An unputdownable novel about twentieth century fashion, French expatriates in Manhattan during World War II, the miracle of creative genius, and the lives of the great writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery and the women he loved. Open the first page and prepare to fall.”
“A ravishing glimpse into the early days of American haute couture and into the private life of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious authors. Ania Szado’s writing is nothing less than sublime.”
“With subtlety and finesse, Ania Szado draws us into the circle of charismatic expatriate, pilot, and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s world, as he struggles to find a way to aid occupied France. The conflicting ambitions and passions of the two beautiful women who love him most lead to an unexpected alliance and shape the trio’s fates in ways none of them can foresee. A thoughtful, fascinating story, beautifully told.”
“Rich in observations, beautifully rendered, Studio Saint-Ex is a complex study of love, overriding ambition, and the miracles of creativity. Ania Szado has written a mesmerizing book.”
“In Ania Szado’s lyrical novel, the characters are pulled between worlds; France and America, high fashion and wartime austerity, the allure of flight and the magic of the written word. Studio Saint-Ex is at once seductive and brimming with the restless energy of World War II New York. It, like its characters, takes wing through a dark uncharted night, in order to deliver great beauty.”
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