Holocaust Memoir Mostly Fiction: Author

A best-selling Holocaust memoir, which follows a 7-year-old Jewish girl who lived with wolves after losing her parents to the Nazis, is mostly fictional, its author confesses—in particular, the parts about the wolves and her being Jewish, Reuters reports. Misha Defonseca says she "always felt Jewish," but, instead of skinning rabbits as she trekked across Europe, lived in Brussels with her grandparents.

Defonseca claimed that the fictional elements in Misha, a Memoir of the Holocaust Years were a result of her fascination with wolves and the escapist fantasies she indulged in during her darkest hours. Her lawyer argues that whether the story is true or allegorical, it is nevertheless "a cry of suffering and an act of courage." (More memoir stories.)