By The New York Times (Europe) | Created at 2024-10-01 20:19:11 | Updated at 2024-10-02 18:15:24
22 hours ago
Books|Ella Leffland, Novelist Drawn to Portraying Outsiders, Dies at 95
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/01/books/ella-leffland-dead.html
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Her work often drew from her upbringing in California amid World War II, such as her intricate novel about the Nazi leader Hermann Goering.
Oct. 1, 2024, 3:43 p.m. ET
Ella Leffland, a California author whose critically acclaimed novels probed the layered history of her home state as well as the mental topography of outsiders and villains, including the Nazi leader Hermann Goering, died on Sept. 18 in San Leandro, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was 92.
Her death, in an assisted living facility, was confirmed by her cousin Carolyn D’Elia. Ms. Leffland had no immediate survivors. Her niece, Karn Hassler, and nephews David See and Erik Leffland had been caring for her for the last several years.
Ms. Leffland grew up in Martinez, Calif., a city on the Carquinez Strait northeast of San Francisco. Her parents were Danish immigrants who referred to their native country as “home,” so growing up, she felt “either a double sense of belonging or no sense of belonging,” Ms. Leffland said in a 1992 interview.
“I think coming from a family that was different and had a different attitude toward things had a bearing on the people I write about,” she added.
Memories of her California youth during World War II became fodder for one of her best known novels, “Rumors of Peace” (1979), a coming-of-age tale about a young tomboy, as Ms. Leffland described her, growing up in Mendoza, Calif., a fictionalized version of Martinez.
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