Length10h 37m
About this audiobook
Though her name is synonymous with elegance and chic, the iconic Coco Chanel had a complicated dark side, and in late August 1944, as World War II drew to a close, she was arrested and interrogated on charges of treason to France.
Many of the facts are lost to history, partly through Chanel’s own obfuscation, but this much is known: the charges grew out of her wartime romance with a German spy, and one morning two soldiers from the French Forces of the Interior—the loose band of Resistance fighters, soldiers, and private citizens who took up arms in the wake of the Liberation of Paris—led Chanel from her suite at the Ritz Hotel in Paris to an undisclosed location for questioning.
What transpired during her interrogation, who was present, and why she was set free when so many other women who’d been involved with German men (willingly or otherwise) had their heads shaved or were imprisoned, remains a mystery.
In this brilliantly insightful and compulsively readable novel from the author of I Am Madame X, Gioia Diliberto explores the motivations of this complex woman and portrays the gripping battle of wits that could have been her interrogation. Was Chanel truly a collaborator?
Though the Occupation of France offered a stark contrast between good and evil, few people are wholly heroes or villains in wartime. Most citizens, as the writer André Gide noted, were like old shoes floating in murky waters: battered and torn, riding the turbulent flow, just trying to survive.
By turns raw and vulnerable, steely and flawed, Chanel emerges from this book as a woman who owns her decisions, no matter the consequences. Rich with history and filled with emotional truths, Coco at the Ritz is a story about the choices one woman made when the stakes were the highest. In today’s world, it is a cautionary tale about the necessity of standing against evil when it’s staring you in the face.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.7 (862)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, Amazon, LibraryThing
GenreHistorical Fiction, General Fiction
Length10 hrs 37 mins
Narrated byGabrielle de Cuir
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateFeb 5, 2022
LanguageEnglish
More from Gioia Diliberto
Northern ShadowsDaniel Greene12h 52m4.7 (281)$23
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
The Labyrinth of the SpiritsCarlos Ruiz Zafon27h 55m4.5 (77.2K)$53 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
Their Castilian OrphanAnna Belfrage14h 45m4.7 (122)$27
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
Eagles over BritainLee Jackson12h 26m4.5 (18.6K)$23
Rilla of InglesideLucy Maud Montgomery11h 44m4.5 (48.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Viennese DressmakerKathryn Gauci11h 46m4.5 (2.1K)$23 · $0.00
The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to BaghdadAgatha Christie15h 43m4.6 (495)$33 · $0.00
Under the Light of the Italian MoonJennifer Anton12h 28m4.5 (5.3K)$23 · $0.00
Jubilee, 50th Anniversary EditionMargaret Walker15h 43m4.5 (9.5K)$25 · $0.00
Arch of TriumphErich Maria Remarque15h 51m4.4 (36.6K)$28
Serenade for NadiaZülfü Livaneli9h 9m4.4 (20.1K)$20
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen14h 44m4.4 (4.7M)$2 · $0.00
Flying Colours (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith9h 26m4.4 (10.1K)$2 · $0.00
With Love from HarlemReShonda Tate13h 48m4.5 (2K)$6 · $0.00
Under the Java MoonHeather B. Moore12h 23m4.4 (3.2K)$23
FamilyJ. California Cooper4h 43m4.4 (3.6K)$15
Rilla of InglesideL. M. Montgomery12h 25m4.4 (67.5K)$2 · $0.00
Supreme ClienteleAshley & JaQuavis8h 58m4.7 (3.4K)$20
Body Refinement in a Beast Tamer’s World, Book 1Seth Ring14h 7m4.7 (1.3K)$27
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (669)$28 · $0.00
Searching For ThanksgivingS.E. Smith4h 24m4.8 (395)$20
Naughty 4Brenda Hampton7h 30m4.7 (726)$17
The Dance with Me TrilogyShelley Shepard Gray21h 44m4.7 (1.2K)$35
The DopemanJaQuavis Coleman5h 25m4.7 (3.8K)$20
BAEJahquel J.5h 22m4.7 (3.1K)$20
Dark RisingJeffrey Wilson, Brian Andrews13h 47m4.7 (1.3K)$27
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Grand Opening 2Carl Weber9h 16m4.7 (2.4K)$20
Sons of Valor II: Violence of ActionBrian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson12h 34m4.6 (3.6K)$23
Malevolent MagicMildred Abbott7h 13m4.7 (1.2K)$17
Bikes, Toys, and Hot BoyzGenesis Woods, Shantaé13h 9m4.7 (722)$23
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m4.6 (2.9K)$20
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
The Vineyard BrideKatie Winters5h 5m4.6 (1.9K)$15
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
The Queen of ParisPamela Binnings Ewen15h 8m4.1 (9.1K)$23
The Radio OperatorUlla Lenze8h 53m3.6 (1.8K)$29 · $0.00
Ashenden: or, The British AgentW. Somerset Maugham10h 32m3.9 (6.9K)$1 · $0.00
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932Francine Prose18h 13m3.7 (7K)$40 · $0.00
When Corruption Was KingRobert Cooley11h 5m4.3 (973)$23
CopperheadBernard Cornwell16h 57m4.1 (5.8K)$40 · $0.00
Red Sky at NoonSimon Sebag Montefiore11h 38m4.0 (3.5K)$23
Ashenden - The British Agent (Annotated)W. Somerset Maugham10h 47m4.4 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The Soul of a ThiefSteven Hartov8h 11m3.9 (1.3K)$26 · $0.00
Devil Darling SpyMatt Killeen12h 56m3.6 (1.2K)$23
The Backwash of WarEllen Newbold La Motte2h 34m4.2 (711)$2.30
Wide Is the GateUpton Sinclair28h 17m4.5 (517)$30
A Lily of the FieldJohn Lawton13h 45m4.1 (2.1K)$23
Under Western EyesJoseph Conrad12h 33m4.0 (14.1K)$2.30
Gotti's RulesGeorge Anastasia9h 28m3.8 (2.2K)$29 · $0.00
Black WindF. Paul Wilson22h 5m4.3 (1.6K)$30
Up in Honey's RoomElmore Leonard7h 28m3.6 (4.7K)$24 · $0.00
Waiting for SunriseWilliam Boyd13h 8m3.7 (14.7K)$33 · $0.00
The Soldier’s GirlSharon Maas11h 59m4.2 (3.2K)$23
An Unlikely SpyRebecca Starford10h 25m3.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00