The Leopard Hat: A Daughter's Story - Softcover

Valerie Steiker's poignant memoir limns with love the indelible impact of her glamorous, adored mother, Gisèle, and her painful struggle to come to terms with Gisèle's premature death from cancer in 1988, when Valerie was only 20. The book's marvelous opening pages portray a beautiful, privileged woman who can't do her own hair and throws the entire household into disarray when dressing to go out with her husband. Swathed in gowns, bedecked in jewels, and always shod in high heels (even on her canvas boat shoes), Gisèle is the epitome of a wealthy, sophisticated New Yorker. She's also a Belgian-born Jew who spent the war years in hiding with her mother after her father was deported to Auschwitz; the magical cocoon Gisèle spins for her daughters in their East Side apartment is a creation of her will and imagination, her passionate desire to give them the childhood she was denied. Steiker's luminous prose, vividly evoking Gisèle's allure, makes palpable the void left by her loss. Only at the end of a five-year romance launched just weeks after Gisèle's death does the author realize, "I had been desperately trying to hold on to my mother ... at the expense of my growing more fully into myself." The chapters about Valerie's postcollege years as a young writer and editor in Manhattan, though well-written and intelligent, aren't quite as compelling as the ones that tenderly chronicle her mother's life. This is Gisèle's book, and it's clear her daughter wouldn't have wanted it any other way. --Wendy Smith

"The exquisite handiwork of a deeply appealing young writer. . . . Steiker's understated, moving prose penetrates deep into the interior itself: to the heart, to the mind." –TheWashington Post Book World

“Poignant. . . . a graceful tracing of her mother's life." —Vogue

“Such a beautiful book. . . . It’s about what home means to you and how it can really be embodied in one person who shapes your life, and how to deal with it after that person is gone.” --Anna Quindlen on the Today Show

“Lovely. . . . Vibrant. . . Gisele sought beauty and loved extravagance in a way that made her the most unforgettable character in her daugther’s life. . . . Remind[s] you of Life Is Beautiful.” —San Francisco Chronicle

"Extraordinary. . . . She titles each chapter of her elegantly structured work after an animal or an insect, then subtly and seamlessly weaves metaphors of anthropomorphism into her narrative, as if into a web." —Newsday

“Here Steiker proves the mother-daughter relationship does not have to be fraught with trouble to be memorable.” —Boston Herald

“Poignant. . . . Quite beautiful. . . . A graceful tracing of her mother's life." —Vogue

“Delicious. . . . Don’t be too surprised if you find yourself rereading passages just to enjoy Steiker’s lush prose, rich descriptions, and above all the talent for living she inherited from her mother.” —Bookreporter.com

“Valerie Steiker combines style and substance in The Leopard Hat, an ode to her flamboyant and sophisticated mother, Gisele.” —Time Out New York

“An outstandingly moving valentine to [Steiker’s] dashing and exuberant Belgian mother... What an incredible family album.” —Daily Candy

“Completely charming .... Can there be any loving daughter who won’t see something of her mother in this memoir, or many readers who won’t be taken by its special mixture of the high-hearted and the heartbreaking?” —Adam Gopnik

“A luminously written debut. . . . A loving tribute to a woman who taught her daughters to value beauty and joy.” —Kirkus