AURORA'S MOTIVE

Hardback. Tr. from the German by Edna McCown. A novel in which the author reconstructs this actual, much publicised murder case with a combination of meticulous research and imaginative flair. In June 1933 Aurora Rodriguez was compelled to kill a child she brought into the world to overcome the barriers of social conventions and so transform the situation of her sex. Aurora found a priest, healthy in mind and body, who was prepared to father the child and disappear from her life for ever. She became pregnant, moved to Madrid and, in 1914, gave birth to a girl whom she named Hildegart - 'garden of wisdom'. From the outset, Aurora cultivated Hildegart as a prodigy. She walked before her first birthday, typed at two, and, in her early teens, took a university degree and became a public figure and writer advocating equal rights for women, birth control and sexual freedom. Then Hildegart demanded her independence. But, increasingly tortured and confused in her relationship with Aurora, her spirit was broken and she begged her mother to release her. Aurora agreed. At her death, Hildegart was 18yrs. old. A controversial story that encapsulates the devasting consequence of attempting to create a human ideal. 117pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in vg+ dw.