Triangle

Danielle Steel, one of the world’s best-selling authors, is known for her narratives that delve into themes of love, resilience, and the intricacies of human relationships. Steel’s own life—marked by moments of love, loss, and reinvention—has deeply influenced her work, including her novel Triangle. Through the characters of Amanda, Olivier, and Stephanie, Steel explores personal transformation, forbidden love, and the weight of societal expectations, drawing from her own experiences and observations.

There are parallels between Steel and Amanda, the novel’s protagonist. Steel is the only child of John Schulein-Steel, heir to the German Löwenbräu beer dynasty, and Norma da Câmara Stone dos Reis, the daughter of a Portuguese diplomat (Ott, Tim. “Danielle Steel.” Biography, 10 Aug. 2020). She was raised in high society and spent her formative years in New York and Paris, reflecting Amanda’s bicultural upbringing and elite background. After her parents divorced, Steel lived primarily with her father in France, where she attended French schools before continuing her education at American colleges, specifically New York University and Parsons School of Design (Steel, Danielle. “About Me.” Danielle Steel). Like Amanda, Steel has a connection to the art world, having managed a contemporary art gallery early in her career (Steel).