The New York Times bestselling definitive biography
of Natalie Wood, Natasha is the haunting story of a vulnerable
and talented actress whom many of us felt we knew.
We watched her mature on the movie
screen before our eyes-in Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side
Story, Splendor in the Grass, and on and on. She has been hailed-along with Marilyn
Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor-as one of the top three female movie stars in the history
of film, making her a legend in her own lifetime and beyond. But the story of what
Natalie endured, of what her life was like when the doors of the soundstages closed,
has long been obscured.
Natasha is based on years of exhaustive research into Natalie's
turbulent life and mysterious drowning.
Author Suzanne Finstad conducted nearly four hundred interviews
with Natalie's family, close friends, legendary costars, lovers, film crews, and
virtually everyone connected with the investigation of her strange death.
Through
these firsthand accounts from many who have never spoken publicly before, Finstad
has reconstructed a life of emotional abuse and exploitation, of almost unprecedented
fame, great loneliness, poignancy, and loss. She sheds an unwavering light on Natalie's
complex relationships with James Dean, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Raymond Burr,
Warren Beatty, and Robert Wagner and reveals the two lost loves of Natalie's life,
whom her controlling mother prevented her from marrying.
Finstad tells this beauty's
heartbreaking story with sensitivity and grace, revealing a complex and conflicting
mix of fragility and strength in a woman who was swept along by forces few could
have resisted.
Suzanne Finstad, a former lawyer, is the award-winning author of five previous literary
works, including the bestseller Sleeping with the Devil. She lives in Los Angeles.