Mussolini's Daughter: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe

By Caroline Moorehead

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The bestselling author of A Train in Winter returns with the definitive story of Mussolini’s daughter, Edda, one of the most influential women in 1930s Italy, whose life had more twists and turns than a spy novel.

Edda Mussolini was Benito's favourite child: spoiled and venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal. For much of the twenty-year period of Fascist rule, she was her father's closest confidante.

In 1930, at the age of nineteen, Edda married Count Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest Foreign Secretary in Italian history. Acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, Edda played a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. During this time, the Cianos became the most celebrated and glamorous couple in elegant, vulgar Roman fascist society.

Their fortunes turned in 1943, when Ciano voted against Mussolini in a plot to bring him down, and his father-in-law did not forgive him. Edda's dramatic story includes hidden diaries, her father's downfall and her husband's execution, and an escape into Switzerland followed by a period in exile. Moorehead draws a portrait of a complicated, bold, and determined woman—one who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century's defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780735279759

Caroline Moorehead

Caroline Moorehead is the New York Times bestselling author of the Resistance Quartet, which includes A Bold and Dangerous Family, Village of Secrets, and A Train in Winter, as well as Human Cargo, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. An acclaimed biographer, she has written for the New York Review of Books, The Guardian, and The Independent. She lives in London and Italy.

Reviews for Mussolini's Daughter

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I very much enjoyed this biography of Edda Mussolini -- Benito Mussolini's eldest, and most loved, child. The book describes her life, her relationship with her father, and the role she played as a "ambassador of fascism". The author examines how much influence Edda had over her father and events, and how much she was perceived to have. It looks at public attitudes toward her as Italy's defeat in WWII became evident and fascism was overturned. It is written in an engaging, accessible style. It provides context about Italy's domestic economy and politics and well as the broader geopolitical situation leading up to WWII. Recommended.