The Astor Orphan

The Astor Orphan is an unflinching debut memoir by a direct descendant of John Jacob Astor, Alexandra Aldrich.

She brilliantly tells the story of her eccentric, fractured family; her 1980s childhood of bohemian neglect in the squalid attic of Rokeby, the family's Hudson Valley Mansion; and her brave escape from the clan. Aldrich reaches back to the Gilded Age when the Astor legacy began to come undone, leaving the Aldrich branch of the family penniless and squabbling over what was left.

Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that bring this faded world into focus, The Astor Orphan is written with the grit of The Glass Castle and set amid the aristocratic decay of Grey Gardens.

How does one of America's most famous families fall into such magnificent, heartbreaking decay?

• Gilded Age Legacy: From the immense wealth of John Jacob Astor to the squabbling, penniless descendants left behind in a crumbling mansion.
• A Dysfunctional Family: Witness a world of eccentric relatives, bohemian neglect, and deep-seated family secrets inside the 43-room Rokeby estate.
• Bohemian Upbringing: A childhood spent in a squalid attic, surrounded by artists, drifters, and the ghosts of a once-great American dynasty.
• A Search for Identity: The powerful true story of a young woman's brave escape from her family's suffocating history to find her own place in the world.