What Falls Away: A Memoir (4 Cassettes) Book

In an exquisitely written memoir, Mia Farrow introduces us to the landscapes of her extraordinary life. Moving from her earliest memories of the walled gardens and rocky shores of Western Ireland and her Hollywood childhood to her career as an actress, she writes of these experiences and her struggle to protect her children in a painful custody battle with Woody Allen. It was the crisis that led her to reflect upon the incidents that had brought her to a place so incomprehensible. She was born the third of seven children to the beautiful actress Maureen O'Sullivan and successful writer/director John Farrow, but the isolation of a polio ward brought her childhood to an abrupt end at the age of nine. Several years later, two deaths shattered the security of the family forever, and Mia Farrow embarked upon a journey that would lead her away from the convent education that was to sustain her spiritual courage, to starring roles in Peyton Place and Rosemary's Baby, a marriage to Frank Sinatra, divorce, a defining trip to India, work on the London stage and in film, and marriage to Andre Previn. Their life together in England brought them three sons and three daughters before that marriage, too, dissolved and she returned to the United States. The year 1979 saw the beginning of a new career with brilliant performances in thirteen of Woody Allen's most distinguished films.

Written in spare, beautifully crafted prose, What Falls Away is a work that owes more to literary tradition than celebrity autobiography. Covering the years of Peyton Place, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary's Baby, her seven-year marriage to Andre Previn and their five children, her 12-year relationship with Woody Allen, and her life today, Mia Farrow speaks for the first time of that which has been her life. 32 pp. of photos. 384 pp. Media publicity & ads. Online promo. 225,000 print. (Autobiography)