When Melanie McCabe’s father died in 1973, she learned a startling truth about his life before he settled into a quiet suburban existence. Terrence McCabe had been married before; his first wife, Hazel, was Tennessee Williams’ childhood sweetheart; and Williams wrote characters based on both of them, and their marriage, into his plays.

As an adult, Melanie set off to discover the real story behind her father’s former life, enlisting help from librarians, amateur genealogists, and Tennessee Williams’ own writings to fill in the blanks. At the center of the investigation is the perplexing death of Hazel, who died at age 38 while living in Mexico City. Was it suicide? Was it an accident? And who was the unknown man with her when she died?

Part memoir, part love story, part gripping mystery, His Other Life is moving for what it reveals about the tragedies of falling in love, getting married, and trying to create a life.