The "Legacy" of Sybille Bedford

In A Legacy, author Sybille Bedford remarks, "life is never as bad nor as good as one thinks." Set in the lead up to World War I, this highly acclaimed, underappreciated novel is narrated by a woman whose existence - and inheritance - is the product of an ill-fated marriage between two very different families: The Jewish Merzes, members of Berlin’s haute bourgeoisie, and The Feldens, landed aristocrats from Germany’s Catholic south. As the woman pieces together the rumors and bits of conversation she remembers from her childhood, she unveils a family scandal that once almost took down the government. In her forward to a new edition of the novel, Brenda Wineapple, acclaimed author, most recently of the book Ecstatic Nation, calls the story "superb," writing, “Its beautifully wrought depiction of human life as humorous and harrowing, interconnected and splintering, confused, unjust, and sometimes quite kind extends the legacy of the novel.” Submit your questions for Brenda below.