Liza Klaussmann is making literary waves of her own with her new novel Villa America

A direct descendant of Moby Dick author Herman Melville, Klaussmann draws inspiration from the Gilded Age adventures of F Scott Fitzgerald

Liza Klaussmann Picture: Bryan Meade
Liza Klaussmann Picture: Bryan Meade

Liza Klaussmann laughs awkwardly when I ask her if she comes from a glamorous background. “I don’t know,” the bestselling author says, a tad evasively. “Not any more or less than anyone else I know.”

Klaussmann might not want to admit it in an interview context, but she’s a little less ordinary than most. A former journalist with the New York Times, she also happens to be the great-great-great granddaughter ...