Wilson's Giacometti was an extremely imaginative child who entwined fantasy and real-life experiences. As he matured, the artist combined fact and fancy into evolving myths, part conscious and part unconscious. Drawing on biographical data uncovered during a decade of research, Wilson reconstructs traumatic events and issues in Giacometti's life--including family births and deaths in early childhood, world wars and their aftermath, and his intense and ambivalent relationship with his parents--and examines their profound effects on his artistic evolution. These startling new interpretations will forever change the way we understand both the man and his work.