Award-winning memoirist and biographer Benjamin Taylor turns his eye toward the biographer's art and the nature of knowing in this riveting "biomystery."
Francie Bogenschine is an independent, willful ninety-year-old Greenwich Village widow who embodies the great artistic heart of downtown New York. Her husband, the impassioned composer and eccentric Rafael Bogenschine, leapt to his death in 1967 at the height of his fame. Francie has fended off would-be biographers for decades. She finally decides to cooperate with one, a leading music historian named Daniel Sidorsky. Daily, Sidorsky climbs the stairs of Francie's house in Patchin Place to sift through the archives, then consults with Francie about his findings. Francie faithfully records the goings-on in her notebook. Will the biographer's probe uncover the mysteries surrounding Bogenschine's work, his womanizing, and his desire to leave this earthly plane?