Zoe

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This book was inspired by a meeting with Lou Albert Lasard, the last living mistress of the poet Rilke. Preface by Anais Nin.

Zoe is the story of a woman and her recollections at age seventy-nine of her lifelong love, Ritter, a renowned poet. The narrative, beginning in the present-day Paris, covers one-half century scarred by two wars and falls into reminiscence of her flight from her husband and child, the all-consuming love affair, its dissolution, her adventures with other men. These memories are set against the reality of her present age. As a once young, loved, beautiful woman, Zoe is coping with the decay of age and time, yet nonetheless displays a primal vitality in her actions, emotions, and perceptions.

This remarkable portrait of a woman-her many selves that are born and die in others eyes, her desire to steep herself in love, her special relationship to time-was inspired by Ms. Rovit meeting in France with the last living mistress of a great writer and imagining what her life may have been like.