Synopses & Reviews
An incisive, beautifully written first novel by a former supermodel that explores the glamorous and gritty world she inhabited.
Only a handful of women in the world have experienced what Paulina Porizkova has being whisked away to model in Paris while still a teenager, reaching the pinnacle of the profession before her schoolmates had even graduated and fewer still have the insight to capture it on paper.
In her first novel, Paulina tells the story of Jirina. A tall, scrawny fifteen-year-old girl from Sweden, she's much more accustomed to taunts and disdain than admiration and affection, whether from her classmates or her own family. That all changes when her only friend, Hatty, asks to practice her makeup and photography skills on Jirina. Almost before she knows it Jirina is on a plane to Paris, where she will spend the summer in a milieu entirely alien to her. Living at the home of her modeling agency's owner and constantly subjected to blunt physical assessments, catty and often cruel fellow models, and womanizing photographers and, miraculously enough, while sometimes feeling truly beautiful Jirina embarks on a journey beyond her wildest imaginings. Between photo shoots in Italy and Morocco and parties with models and musicians, Jirina manages to make a few friends, fall in love, and, eventually, feel the very adult pain of betrayal and heartbreak.
Told with the grace, simplicity, and accuracy that can only come from real-life experience, A Model Summer is both the debut of a notably talented novelist and an unusually well-informed look behind the scenes at a world many people fantasize about, but few really know.
Review
"Bottom Line: yes, supermodels can write. Porizkova delivers a dizzyingly detailed and wrenching tale of innocence lost. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"A delicious debut novel about beauty and betrayal inspired by the life of this former supermodel." Cosmopolitan
Review
"[W]hile revealing modeling's dirty secrets, Porizkova loses sight of her narrator, sacrificing Jirina for the expose....Ultimately, it is a novel full of contradictions that ends without any real closure." Booklist
Review
"A gripping read." Vogue
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"Porizkova has enriched this story with details only an insider could provide...a refreshingly clear-eyed point of view....[A] vivid, cautionary coming-of-age tale." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Told with grace, this incisive, beautifully written first novel by a former supermodel explores the glamorous and gritty world she inhabited.
Synopsis
A MODEL SUMMER tells the story of Jirina, a 15-year-old Swedish girl trying to make it as a model in Paris over the summer. Jirina is an insecure, gangly, and na??ve teenager, alone in a foreign country. In Paris, she is subjected to constant physical criticism, catty, and sometimes cruel, fellow models, and womanizing photographers???but she also manages to find success, love, and, eventually heartbreak. A MODEL SUMMER takes a measured and thoughtful look at the modeling world, seen through the eyes of one young girl.
About the Author
Paulina Porizkova is a former political refugee, an accidental model, and an occasional actress. Also the author of a children's book, The Adventures of Ralphie the Roach, she is married to the musician Ric Ocasek, with whom she has two sons. They live in New York City.