Introduction

Raquel Toro, the protagonist of Xochitl Gonzalez's new novel, is working on her thesis about a minimalist sculptor when she discovers his all-but-forgotten wife, artist Anita de Monte, died after falling 33 stories from their apartment more than a decade prior. Based on the story of Cuban artist Ana Mendieta, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is an odyssey into ego, power and marriage in the art world. In today's episode, Gonzalez tells NPR's Scott Simon how fiction allowed her to expand on Mendieta's legacy, and why she didn't want to discredit the husband's own career along the way.

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