Annemarie Selinko was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n novelist who wrote a number of best-selling books in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 from the 1930s through the 1950s. Although she had been based in Germany, in 1939 at the start of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 she took refuge in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 with her Danish husband, but then in 1943, they again became refugees, this time to Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. http://www.nebula5.org/clary/book.html http://www.bibliopoche.com/auteur/Anne-Marie_Selinko/4587.html

Many of her novels have been adapted into movies and all have been translated into numerous languages. Her last work Désirée (1951) was about Désirée Clary

Désirée Clary

Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary , one-time fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte, was a Frenchwoman who became Queen of Sweden and Norway as the consort of King Charles XIV John, a former French General. She officially changed her name there to Desideria, a Latin version of her original name...

, one of Napoleon's lovers and, later, a queen of Sweden. It has been translated into 25 languages and in 1956 was turned into a movie with Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

 and Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons

Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J...

. It is dedicated to her sister Liselotte, who was murdered by the Nazis.

Novels

• Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen (I Was an Ugly Girl), Vienna: Kirschner Verlag, 1937; Made into a film, West Germany, 1955.
• Morgen wird alles besser (Tomorrow is Always Better), 1941; Made into a film, Morgen gaat het beter, Netherlands, 1939
• Heute heiratet mein Mann (My Husband Marries Today), 1943; Made into a film, West Germany, 1956.
• Désirée, 1952; Made into a film, U.S., 1954.