Laurinel Owen knew her husband, Klaus, for 27 years — or so she thought…
Laurinel Owen enjoys an international career as a cellist and journalist. She has published over 130 articles in stateside publication Strings Magazine and here in the UK in magazines The Strad and Muso on topics related to cello technique, soloist, luthier and music school profiles, concert, festival, and record reviews.
But her private life is a new story. After nursing her husband Klaus through a lengthy illness and eventually mourning his passing, Owen discovered that Klaus had taken a devastating secret to his grave: she wasn’t his only wife. But that wasn’t all. Klaus had bilked her out of thousands of dollars and was the son of a Nazi murderer who had fled the United States amid FBI accusations of being the head of the American Gestapo.
Klaus’ profound betrayal prompted Owen to dig deep for answers. “First of all, I thought to myself, ‘What is it that allowed him to betray me so fully?'” she commented in a recent interview. “And then I thought, ‘Who was I that allowed this?'”
Owen traces her journey of self-discovery and chronicles the fallout of her decades-long life with Klaus in her powerful new book, Strings Attached: A Memoir of Betrayal, Bigamy, and Self-Discovery.
Owen arrived in apartheid South Africa on Christmas Day 1980, eager to discover where her cello playing could take her. From the stage, she saw him for the first time.
Their life together was bliss until he invited her to the family vacation home: When she knocked, his wife opened the door. But Owen couldn’t give up on the man she had fallen in love with. He followed her back to America, where they married and lived together for 22 years. Then, upon his death, his daughter from his first marriage announced: “My parents were never divorced.”
“Betrayal is universal. Mine was extreme,” Owen said. “I want to support and inspire others in pain and show them that there is a way through their difficulties.”
With honesty and vulnerability, Owen invites readers into her multi-faceted tale of deceit, self-deception and the high price she paid for living in denial. Her husband’s transgressions spawned a three-continent lawsuit that Owen had to navigate while bearing the weight of the shame, guilt and anxiety she carried over her part in the real-life drama.
Though music was her anchor, Owen also found healing through various traditional and non-traditional modalities, including psychology, hypnotherapy, acupuncture and meditation.
Strings Attached aims to inspire anyone who has loved, been betrayed, and is seeking recovery and support.
Strings Attached: A Memoir of Betrayal, Bigamy, and Self-Discovery | Koehler Books | ISBN-13: 979-8888243947
www.laurinelowen.com
