Yves Montand

In fast-paced prose, Joseph Harriss tells the many sided life story of the great Yves Montand, an Italian peasant who became the quintessential Frenchman. Juggling careers as a romantic crooner, political activist and accomplished cinema actor, Montand found time to be a serial lover. His wife, Simone Signoret, mostly looked the other way. Other men wanted to be Yves Montand but no one came close.

~Michael Johnson, American music critic, writer, portrait artist, author of six books.

How did the young, dirt poor Italian peasant Ivo Levi become the singer, dancer, actor, political activist with his wife Simone Signoret, activist and international matinée idol Yves Montand. As with his biography of Jean Gabin, Joseph Harriss has dug deep to present a long overdue and complete look at the life of Yves Montand.

~Terrance Gelenter, The Paris Readers Circle

An Italian broom-maker's son who became France's international superstar, Yves Montand was an idealist who became a realist, his songs and movies capturing and captivating the incendiary twentieth century and reflecting it back onto us. Joseph Harriss writes for casual Montand fans who might know him only from his performances in Z and State of Siege to completists who are familiar with the length and breadth of his astonishing musical catalog. A compulsively readable masterwork.

~Charles Zigman, Author of World's Coolest Movie Star: The Complete 95 Films and Legend of Jean Gabin