Isabel Vincent

Isabel Vincents møde med 93-årige Edward fører til hyppige middage. Samværet får stor betydning for dem begge, da Edwards kone lige er død og Isabel er i en ægteskabelig krise

The Story of a Remarkable Friendship

Dinner with Edward

Two Sisters' Daring Plan that Saved Opera's Jewish Stars from the Third Reich

Overture of Hope

Vienna, 1939: "If anything happens to us, I have money in Switzerland." These were among the last words that sixteen-year-old Renie Lang's grandfather said to her before he perished in the Holocaust. Fifty years later, Renee and thousands like her are trying to find their rightful inheritances in Swiss banks -- and the world faces appalling revelations that "neutral" Switzerland acted as secret banker to the Nazis, abetting the German war against the Jewish people. Award-winning journalist Isabel Vincent unravels the labyrinthine story behind the headlines: how desperate men and women tried to secure their families' futures by opening bank accounts in Switzerland; how the Nazis laundered, through Swiss banks, gold seized from the treasuries of occupied countries, much of it looted from the Jews; how the demands of international business, Swiss bank secrecy, and greed have conspired to prevent the truth from being disclosed for over half a century and still prevent restitution. Balanced, rigorous, and often heartbreaking, this major work also gives a human face to the statistics: a crusading Toronto lawyer; Edgar Bronfman, the passionate head of the World Jewish Congress; a Swiss parliamentarian determined to discover her country's past; and Renie, a survivor waiting in the shadows for some small justice, already a little too late.

Swiss Banks, Nazi Gold, And The Pursuit Of Justice

Hitler's Silent Partners

'Dinner with Edward made me smile, laugh out loud and, also, cry. In this cynical world it is life enhancing' David Suchet A charming, tender and life-affirming memoir of a woman's unlikely bond with a 93-year-old widower With its delicious food, warm jazz, and stunning views of Manhattan, Edward's home was a much-needed refuge for reporter Isabel Vincent. Her recently widowed ninety-something neighbour would prepare weekly meals for her, dinners she would never prepare for herself - fresh oysters, juicy steak, sugar-dusted apple galette. But over long, dark evenings where they both grieved for their very different lost marriages, Isabel realised she was being offered a gift greater than crisp martinis and perfect lamb chops. As they progressed from meals à deux to full dinner parties with an eclectic New York crowd, she saw that Edward was showing her how to rediscover the joy of life. For even a shared bowl of chowder could transform loneliness and anxiety into friendship, freedom, and a pure, simple pleasure Isabel had not known she could find again. Isabel Vincent is a Canadian investigative journalist and award-winning author who writes for the New York Post. She has written several books for which she has received prestigious honours, including the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Excellence in Investigative Journalism and the National Jewish Book Award in Canada for Bodies and Souls. Her writings have also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, L'Officiel and Time. Vincent is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese. She lives in New York.

an uplifting story of food and friendship

The mesmerizing biography of one of the world's richest, most intriguing women—philanthropist and socialite Lily Safra In the early morning of December 3, 1999, Lily Safra stood shivering in her nightgown on the grounds outside her sumptuous Monte Carlo penthouse where, just hours before, her fourth husband, reclusive billionaire Edmond Safra, died in a fire. An American nurse employed by the Safra family was eventually convicted of the arson death. Overnight, Lily became one of the wealthiest widows in the world. The Brazilian-born Lily Safra was no stranger to tragedy. In 1969, her second husband, the Brazilian multimillionaire Alfredo Monteverde, died from two gunshots to the chest. The Brazilian authorities ruled it a suicide. In 1989, her beloved eldest son and four-year-old grandson died in a car accident. But just who is Lily Safra? Despite having become a fixture in society columns for her generous charity work and lavish parties, the elegant and enigmatic widow has remained in the background. Gilded Lily tells Lily Safra's story for the first time. Using archival sources, court documents, and interviews with childhood friends and former employees in South America, investigative journalist Isabel Vincent chronicle's Safra's rise from humble origins in Brazil to fabled wealth in London, New York, and Monaco.

Lily Safra: The Making of One of the World's Wealthiest Widows

Gilded Lily

Traces the forced slavery and prostitution of thousands of young Jewish women from the 1860s to the beginning of World War II, revealing how a notorious Mafia gang exploited victims who were looking to escape poverty and anti-Semitism, women who subsequently formed the religious order known as the Society of Truth. 25,000 first printing.

The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced Into Prostitution in the Americas

Bodies and Souls

Isabel Vincent’s groundbreaking exploration brings to light a dark chapter in our recent history: the white slave trade and the international Jewish mobsters behind it. From the end of the 1860s until the beginning of the Second World War, thousands of young, impoverished Jewish women, most of them from the hard-scrabble shtetls of Eastern Europe, were sold into slavery by a notorious gang of mobsters called the Zwi Migdal. While the enterprise controlled brothels in various locales, its main centres of operation were Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and, to a lesser extent, New York City. To recruit vulnerable country girls, pimps would target villages of desperate poverty, where they posed as respectable suitors of considerable means who had made their money abroad. They would arrange sham marriages to their victims and promise them an easy life in the New World. But once they’d crossed the ocean, these Jewish women found themselves caught up in the white slave trade. Under frequently brutal conditions, the young women had to service the needs of a booming population of immigrant men. An added hardship to endure was being vehemently shunned by the “respectable” Jewish community. Banned from synagogue and reviled by their neighbors, the women were forbidden from partaking in the sacred Jewish burial ritual. So prostitutes banded together to form the Society of Truth, with the promise to do all could they could to help each other be buried in dignity. Through the society the women observed religious life together, setting up private synagogues and kosher kitchens. Cast aside by their community, they created their own: a society of love, honour to God and faith in each other. With the determination and skill of her training as an investigative journalist, Isabel Vincent tells an unforgettable and gripping tale of a shameful chapter in recent history.

The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas

Christine Lamont and David Spencer were two young Canadian idealists who traveled to Latin America as human rights workers. But in 1989, the pair was charged in the kidnapping of a Brazilian millionaire. Although they pled innocent, they were convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison. Here, Vincent, who has had access to Lamont and Spencer, retraces the story to show that the couple were anything but innocents abroad.

Isabel Vincent

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