Author of Fake Holocaust Memoir Won't Collect $22.5 Million

From Slate (11-25-10):

A Massachussets appeals court has ruled that a publisher does not have to pay the author of a fake Holocaust memoir for her best-selling book about surviving the Second World War with the help of wolves. Misha Defonseca, who is neither Jewish nor was raised by wolves, skyrocketed to international fame in 1997 upon the publication of "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years,'' her alleged autobiography. After eleven years of legal battles between Defonseca, her co-author and publisher, the story was exposed as a fake in the Belgian media in 2008. "There are times when I find it difficult to differentiate between reality and my inner world,'' said Defonseca, who attended school in Belgium and whose father reportedly corroborated with Nazis. "The story in the book is mine. It is not the actual reality; it was my reality, my way of surviving.'' Thanks to the "egregious" nature of Defonseca's behavior, a jury ruled that publisher Jane Daniel does not have to pay Defonseca $22.5 million previously awarded for failing to publicize the book. 

Read original story in Boston Globe | Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010