Pushkin's Granddaughter, The Novel: A 20th Century Memoir of Abuse and Spiritual Recovery

An intimate, frenetic story of rape and incest amidst privilege, told in the first person. Born in 1943, Dominique Schmidtt is the great great great granddaughter of the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. Her father, Otto, was a lifelong admirer of Hitler and heir to a wealthy Jewish banking family. He brutally raped her between the ages of four and seven. After that, her life unfolded in more rapes, promiscuity, and abusive relationships. When she was a debutante in 1959, her mother warned her that their Pushkin African heritage could result in a "pitch-black" baby. Dominique pursued enlightenment with Baba Dasmatha during the 1970s, and experienced many dramatic religious and supernatural visions. Her memories of the childhood abuse were recovered in therapy, and in 1992, Dominique sued her father. This began a new roller coaster ride in a life that has spanned the abject and the exalted.