Marita: The Spy Who Loved Castro

by Marita Lorenz

Overview

The dramatic, glamorous story of lover-turned-spy Marita Lorenz and her affair with Fidel Castro.

Few people can say they’ve seen some of the most significant moments of the twentieth century unravel before their eyes. Marita Lorenz is one of them.

Born in Germany at the outbreak of WWII, Marita was incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp as a child. In 1959, she travelled to Cuba where she met and fell in love with Fidel Castro. Yet upon fleeing to America, she was recruited by the CIA to assassinate the Fidel. Torn by love and loyalty, she couldn’t bring herself to slip him the lethal pills.

Her life would take many more twists and turns—including having a child with ex-dictator of Venezuela, Marcos Pérez Jiménez; testifying about the John F. Kennedy assassination; and becoming a party girl with close ties the New York mafia (and then a police informant). 

Caught up in Cold War intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy, this is Marita’s incredible autobiography of a young woman who became a spy for the CIA.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681775784
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Marita Lorenz was born in Germany in 1939 and as a child, was interred in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In the years that followed, she often sailed with her father (who was a ship captain) and, in 1959, she met Fidel Castro, with whom she fell in love. Later, the CIA would recruit and send her to assassinate Castro—an act she was unable to commit. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Marita Lorenz was born in Germany in 1939 and as a child, was interred in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In the years that followed, she often sailed with her father (who was a ship captain) and, in 1959, she met Fidel Castro, with whom she fell in love. Later, the CIA would recruit and send her to assassinate Castro, an act she was unable to commit. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

"Every event is like a tabloid headline in this engrossing memoir."

Foreword Reviews

"Marita Lorenz is the Forrest Gump of the Cold War. She was Fidel Castro’s lover and his would-be assassin. She was also seemingly involved in or present for almost every important geo-political event of that era: from the founding of communist Cuba to the Bay of Pigs invasion to the Kennedy assassination. By all accounts, she seems to be a woman attracted to danger. According to Lorenz: ‘One thing just led to another.’ Lorenz, who is now 78 and living in Brooklyn, has penned a book about her cloak-and-dagger life."

New York Post

Marita Lorenz is the Forrest Gump of the Cold War. She was Fidel Castro’s lover and his would-be assassin. She was also seemingly involved in or present for almost every important geo-political event of that era: from the founding of communist Cuba to the Bay of Pigs invasion to the Kennedy assassination. By all accounts, she seems to be a woman attracted to danger. According to Lorenz: ‘One thing just led to another.’ Lorenz, who is now 78 and living in Brooklyn, has penned a book about her cloak-and-dagger life.

New York Post

Marita Lorenz was traveling with her father, a ship owner, when she met Fidel Castro. The passion in Carol Monda's voice as she narrates this first-person account suggests that Lorenz fell hard for the Cuban leader. But that didn't keep her from becoming involved with an an American plot to kill him. As she tells of that involvement, Monda's voice suggests an undercurrent of anger at the way she was manipulated. The pattern of passion and plotting continues through Lorenz's life story, with a former Venezuelan dictator among her lovers. She also hints of knowledge about the John F. Kennedy assassination and Watergate. Monda gives Lorenz a touch of pride in her voice, even as the author says she isn't proud of her story. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

2017-07-03
"I was stupid and haughty then, a rebel. I sleep alone now": Lorenz delivers a tale of espionage and deceit, told with rueful candor."I didn't have a happy childhood," writes the author early on in this update of her 1993 book. That much is already obvious, for a couple of pages earlier, we find her rescued from a German concentration camp, weighing scarcely 45 pounds and unable to stand on her own, one of just a handful of survivors. A year later, an American soldier raped her. Moving with her mother to the U.S. but already certain that she was destined to live a lonely life, Lorenz traveled to Cuba on a ship in the German line where her father was a captain; among her shipmates were a couple of kids from Bremerhaven who would later sneak a tiger cub aboard and who would grow up to become Las Vegas magicians Siegfried and Roy. Not yet 20, Lorenz became one of Fidel Castro's lovers, his alemanita, "little German girl." The relationship did not last long, and apparently it was a didactic one, inasmuch as Castro "loved to explain his ideas about agrarian reform" and strike heroic poses. He was capable of flying off the handle, though, outraged when Dwight Eisenhower dispatched Richard Nixon to meet with him so that Eisenhower could sneak in a round of golf. The relationship ended with a pregnant Lorenz suffering a mysterious blackout and waking up without child, treated by a cardiologist and not a gynecologist whom Castro then ordered to be shot—or, at any rate, so she believes. Recruited to assassinate Castro, who blustered, "no one can kill me. No one. Ever," she took up with Venezuelan strongman Marcos Pérez, got involved with mobsters (including the one who recruited her to kill Castro), and wound up hearing tales about the assassination of JFK and the Watergate burglary. The congeries of stories has its interest, but Lorenz is an indifferent writer. One hopes that the movie version, to which this ties in, has a little more zing.

Kirkus Reviews