The Last Unicorn

About the Book

Resilient, strong, and unabashedly Irish, Kathryn “Fifi” McFadden has lived through some of the most tumultuous decades of American and world history. Through the years, she became a consummate storyteller, regaling her children and grandchildren with tales from her life. Fifi always said she should write a book, and now, with the help of her son Philip, she’s done exactly that.

Full of vivid historical detail and the wit and wisdom only Fifi can bring, The Last Unicorn takes you from her family’s humble origins in Ireland, through her own innocent youth, growing up in depression era Tarrytown, New York; to her life as a struggling working mom raising five sons, and to the twilight of her years. With insightful glimpses of life on the American home front and the Pacific theater of combat during World War II, the turbulent times of the 1960s and 1970s, and the dawn of new millennium, Fifi provides an eyewitness account of these historic periods.

Fifi’s tales encompass all the joys and sorrows life has to offer. Taken as a whole, they paint a portrait of a remarkable woman, as well as the many lives she touched and helped shape. The Last Unicorn; is not only a family history, but a tribute to Fifi and her incredible generation.

About the Author

Philip McFadden was born in Tarrytown, NY in 1951 and was the third of five sons. His family moved to the south shore of Long Island in 1959 where he grew up in the village of Seaford, NY. He lived most of his adult life in Mount Sinai, NY, where he raised his three children. In the wake of a divorce in the late 1990s, he returned to the site of his family roots in Westchester County, NY, where he remarried in 2000. His love of family and his desire to express himself moved him to try his hand at writing. The Last Unicorn is his first offering.