"Descended from the last king of Poland, born in France, educated at a British grade school in Mexico and a Catholic high school in the United States, Helene Elizabeth Louise Amelie Paula Dolores Poniatowska Amor - otherwise known as Elena - is a passionate, socially conscious writer who is widely known in Mexico and who deserves to be better known everywhere else." "Michael Schuessler, who befriended Poniatowska more than fifteen years ago, is a knowledgeable guide to her engrossing life and equally engaging work. As befits her, his portrait is itself a literary collage, a "living kaleidoscope" that is constantly shifting to include a multiplicity of voices - those of fellow writers, literary critics, her nanny, her mother, and the writer herself - easily accessible to general readers and essential to scholars. Available in English for the first time, this insightful book includes 40 photographs and an annotated bibliography of Poniatowska's works - those that have already been translated into English and these awaiting translation."--BOOK JACKET.