The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo
When several notebooks were recently discovered among Frida Kahlo’s belongings at her home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, acclaimed Mexican novelist F. G. Haghenbeck was inspired to write this beautifully wrought fictional account of her life. Haghenbeck imagines that, after Frida nearly died when a streetcar’s iron handrail pierced her abdomen during a traffic accident, she received one of the notebooks as a gift from her lover Tina Modotti. Frida called the notebook “The Hierba Santa Book” (The Sacred Herbs Book) and filled it with memories, ideas, and recipes.
Haghenbeck takes readers on a magical ride through Frida’s passionate life: her long and tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera, the development of her art, her complex personality, her hunger for experience, and her ardent feminism. This stunning narrative also details her remarkable relationships with Georgia O’Keeffe, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Rockefeller, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Henry Miller, and Salvador Dalí. Combining rich, luscious prose with recipes from “The Hierba Santa Book,” Haghenbeck tells the extraordinary story of a woman whose life was as stunning a creation as her art.
Francisco Gerardo Haghenbeck
F.G. Haghenbeck is a novelist, historian and writer of comic books. He has a degree in Architecture, LaSalle University Mexico city. He worked as museum designer, television producer and architect, until he devoted to his literature career taking in full time job. Haghenbeck now is a well known novelist in many countries. He is famous for his Noir books, like the bestseller Trago Amargo ("Bitter Drink"), and his book "Vuelta de tuerca award" was awarded the Best Mystery Novel 2006. Haghenbeck authored biographies of Mexican artists like Frida Kahlo: The secret book of Frida Kahlo (Atria) which was published in Germany, Holland, Brazil, USA, China, France, Serbia and Italy.
