*ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2019*
‘Addictive … a jaw-dropping read’ STYLIST
‘Explosive … Definitely one for the beach’ ELLE
‘Paints a fascinating picture of an eccentric egomaniac who rails against all authority … gripping stuff’ SUNDAY TIMES
___________
How does it feel to be betrayed by your closest friend? A close friend who turns out to be the most prolific grifter in New York City…
This is the true story of Anna Delvey, the fake heiress whose dizzying deceit and elaborate con-artistry deceived the Soho hipster scene before her ruse was finally and dramatically exposed.
After meeting through mutual friends, the ‘Russian heiress’ Anna Delvey and Rachel DeLoache Williams soon became inseparable. Theirs was an intoxicating world of endless excess: high dining, personal trainer sessions, a luxury holiday … and Anna footed almost every bill.
But after Anna’s debit card was declined in a Moroccan medina whilst on holiday in a five-star luxury resort, Rachel began to suspect that her increasingly mysterious friend was not all she seemed.
This is the incredible story of how Anna Sorokin conned the high-rollers of the NYC social scene and convinced her close friend of an entirely concocted fantasy, the product of falsified bank documents, bad cheques and carefully edited online photos.
Written by Rachel DeLoache Williams, the Vanity Fair photography editor who believed Anna’s lies before helping the police to track her down (fittingly, deciphering Anna’s location using Instagram), this is Catch Me If You Can with Instagram filters. Between Anna, Fyre Festival’s Billy McFarland (Anna even tried to scam Billy) and Elizabeth Holmes, whose start-up app duped the high and mighty of Silicon Valley, this is the year of the scammer.
*Anna stood a high-profile trial in New York that has been followed voraciously by the media. She was found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny, facing up to 15 years in prison. The trial ended on 25th April.*
‘Addictive … a jaw-dropping read’ STYLIST
‘Explosive … Definitely one for the beach’ ELLE
‘Paints a fascinating picture of an eccentric egomaniac who rails against all authority … gripping stuff’ SUNDAY TIMES
___________
How does it feel to be betrayed by your closest friend? A close friend who turns out to be the most prolific grifter in New York City…
This is the true story of Anna Delvey, the fake heiress whose dizzying deceit and elaborate con-artistry deceived the Soho hipster scene before her ruse was finally and dramatically exposed.
After meeting through mutual friends, the ‘Russian heiress’ Anna Delvey and Rachel DeLoache Williams soon became inseparable. Theirs was an intoxicating world of endless excess: high dining, personal trainer sessions, a luxury holiday … and Anna footed almost every bill.
But after Anna’s debit card was declined in a Moroccan medina whilst on holiday in a five-star luxury resort, Rachel began to suspect that her increasingly mysterious friend was not all she seemed.
This is the incredible story of how Anna Sorokin conned the high-rollers of the NYC social scene and convinced her close friend of an entirely concocted fantasy, the product of falsified bank documents, bad cheques and carefully edited online photos.
Written by Rachel DeLoache Williams, the Vanity Fair photography editor who believed Anna’s lies before helping the police to track her down (fittingly, deciphering Anna’s location using Instagram), this is Catch Me If You Can with Instagram filters. Between Anna, Fyre Festival’s Billy McFarland (Anna even tried to scam Billy) and Elizabeth Holmes, whose start-up app duped the high and mighty of Silicon Valley, this is the year of the scammer.
*Anna stood a high-profile trial in New York that has been followed voraciously by the media. She was found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny, facing up to 15 years in prison. The trial ended on 25th April.*
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Reviews
My Friend Anna is sensational.
My Friend Anna is the dishy story you've been craving ever since Anna Delvey first made headlines... a harrowing account of what it's like to be conned.
Beach reads should be light, fun, and serve a lot dish. That's why number one on my summer reading list is My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams.
...the Sorokin scam [has] everything: glamour, greed, lust for power, great clothes (or at least expensive ones), rich people being ripped off, cameos by fellow millennial con artists like "Pharma Bro" and the Fyre Festival organizers, and lots of satisfying clichés about the rotten core of the Big Apple.
An intimate, methodical look at the pair's relationship.
It is everything I wanted it to be and more. A deep dive around New York's coolest bars and hippest hangouts and a tale of two girls that blurs the lines between friend and freelancer.
Addictive
A Catch Me If You Can for the internet age ... What Anna did was make Instagram flesh.
Gripping.
At a time when we are obsessed with true-crime ... Anna Sorokin is the real deal. That doesn't make it right. But oh, it tastes good.
Totally gripping ... impossible to put down for the duration, My Friend Anna is undeniably one of the summer's most compelling reads.
A powerful reminder that you should think twice before trusting even your friends with large sums of money.
Anna looked at the soul of New York and recognized that if you distract people with shiny objects, they will be virtually unable to see anything else. And the thing was: it was so easy.
A fascinating memoir.
Extraordinary
A cautionary tale for today's throwaway society.