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Highway 99: a literary journey through California's Great Central Valley
Par Stan Yogi. 1996
This multicultural anthology contains essays, fiction, poetry and drama showcasing seventy writers living along the length of Highway 99--the main…
artery through California's Central Valley. Explores how the agricultural opportunities of the region attract people from many walks of life: African American migrants, Oklahoma refugees, Filipino laborers, Chinese pioneers, Mexican workers, and Laotian immigrantsGiants in the earth: the California redwoods
Par Peter Johnstone, Peter E. Palmquist. 2001
Literary anthology of stories, poems, natural history compositions, and articles selected from three hundred years of writing about the California…
redwoods. Authors Walt Whitman, John Muir, Jack London, Tom Wolfe, Armistead Maupin, and others who visited the groves felt inspired to write about their experiences and feelingsVoyage avec Charley
Par John Steinbeck. 1995
"Nostalgie et désenchantement : telle est la tonalité de ce voyage à travers l'Amérique que Steinbeck entreprend en 1960 (deux…
ans avant de recevoir le prix Nobel de littérature), au volant de son mobil-home, avec pour seul compagnon son chien Charley - vieux gentleman français né à Bercy. De cette aventure, il va tirer son dernier grand livre. Pennsylvanie, forêts du Maine, interminables plaines du Middle West, hautes terres du Montana, côte Pacifique, déserts du Sud, Texas, Nouvelle-Orléans et retour : onze semaines de randonnées hasardeuses, de rencontres, de surprises (bonnes et mauvaises) - mais surtout de regrets. Car le récit qu'il nous en fait, malgré sa verve, sonne comme un chant d'adieu. [...] Son diagnostic n'est pas encourageant, mais il nous intéresse au premier chef, nous qui venons après lui. Car le monde qu'il aperçoit à travers les apparences qui s'offrent à chaque tournant du chemin est bien le nôtre. Et à relire son livre avec ces trente-cinq années de recul, on ne peut que se retrouver à l'unisson de son désarroi. Et se dire que le plouc de Salinas, décidément, n'avait pas les yeux dans sa poche." -- 4e de couvCrooked Creek
Par Maximilian Werner. 2011
2012 Eric Hoffer Book Awards for General Fiction Honorable Mention2011 Utah Book Award FinalistCrooked Creek takes place during the latter…
part of westward expansion and chronicles the lives (and deaths) of the Wood family. The Woods-Preston and Sara-must flee Arizona when they, along with Sara's parents and little brother Jasper, unwittingly get caught up in the plunder and sale of American Indian corpses and funerary objects. Preston, Sara, and Jasper end up in the Heber Valley of Utah, where they seek the support of Sara's Uncle Neff until they can be reunited with Sara's mother and father. But from the moment they ride into Heber, Preston and Sara learn that life in the valley is not as it appears, and that no matter how far we run, we cannot escape the past. Maximilian Werner is the author of Black River Dreams, a collection of literary fly fishing essays that won the 2008 Utah Arts Council's Original Writing Competition for Nonfiction: Book. Mr. Werner's poems, fiction, creative nonfiction, and essays have appeared in several journals and magazines, including Matter Journal: Edward Abbey Edition, Bright Lights Film Journal, The North American Review, ISLE, Weber Studies, Fly Rod and Reel, and Columbia. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and two children and teaches writing at the University of Utah."Maximilian Werner is a fresh and grounded writer, a welcome and original new voice." -Thomas McGuane, author of Driving on the Rim"Here in the deep measured prose of Max Werner is a western story, harsh and lush as the old world it depicts. Crooked Creek shows again that one of the natural laws of the wilderness--along with wind and stone and animals and family--is violence. Just as wind and water shaped the stone, trouble shaped these men. With its compelling, layered story, this rich book is a reader's pleasure." -Ron Carlson, author of The Signal"Max Werner's Crooked Creek offers a haunting voyage into the past and into living landscapes sharpened by western light, resonating with the work of such authors as Cormac McCarthy and Wallace Stegner. A narrative of the vitality of family bonds, it is also a tale of the heroic struggle to carry the burden of memory and to transform history's nightmares into visions of possibility, as Octavio Paz once argued was the high calling of literature. Crooked Creek reminds us of the tough aesthetic that is required to sustain hope in family, in community, and in the staggering and heartbreaking beauty of nature that Werner's prose powerfully illuminates, while also reckoning with the dark sins of betrayal and violence that are the legacies of the American West. Werner convinces us that no meaningful sense of place is possible otherwise."-George Handley, author of Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo RiverBetty: The International Bestseller
Par Tiffany McDaniel. 2020
'Breahtaking'Vogue'So engrossing! Betty is a page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story steeped in Cherokee history, told in undulating prose that settles right…
into you'Naoise Dolan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Exciting Times 'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Everthing Under'I loved Betty: I fell for its strong characters and was moved by the story it portrayed' Fiona Mozley, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Elmet 'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words. 'Not a story you will soon forget' Karen Joy Fowler, Booker Prize shortlisted author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves 'Shot through with moonshine, Bible verses, and folklore, Betty is about the cruelty we inflict on one another, the beauty we still manage to find, and the stories we tell in order to survive' Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow ChildIcebound Summer
Par Sally Carrighar. 1953
Storm Birds
Par Einar Karason. 2018
"This gripping novel is as good at describing the magnificent seascapes and the unforgiving elements as it is at examining…
the inner lives of the besieged crew, toiling ceaselessly against implacable nature" -Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR"Gripping and Exciting" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEARIn February 1959, several Icelandic trawlers were caught in a storm off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What happened there is the inspiration for this novel. Not since The Perfect Storm has there been a book which captures the sheer drama and terror of a crisis at sea. Karason is an exceptional storyteller, an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner.The side trawler Mafurinn is hit by a major storm just as they prepare to turn for home. Thirty-two men aboard, and a hold full of redfish. The sea is cold enough to kill a man in minutes, and the trawler quickly ices up in the biting frost and violent tempest. The heavy icing weighs down the already fully laden craft, which is pummelled by one breaker after another - and here, out on the open sea, there is no exit route. Distress signals from other ships in the same circumstance and be heard from the fishing grounds around them. It is a battle of life and death.Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID'A superb storyteller' PETER MAYA BIZARRE DISCOVERYAn unidentified corpse is found…
in a freezer in the garage of an unoccupied house. DS Alexandra Cupidi is handed a case that is made even colder by no-one seeming to know or care whose body it is.A HISTORIC CRIMEIt becomes clear there is a connection between the crime and a skeleton uncovered underneath a housing development of Trevor Grey, a boy who went missing twenty five years earlier.A BURIED LIFEDigging deep into secrets that have long been concealed brings Cupidi to face a deadly conspiracy to hide these crimes. Her investigation is complicated by a secret liaison, a political cover-up and the underground life of Trevor Grey's only friend.With meticulously realised characters and a brooding setting, Grave's End confronts the crisis in housing, environmentalism, historic cases of abuse and the protection given to badgers by the law. The third book in the DS Alexandra Cupidi series confirms William Shaw as one of our finest writers of crime fiction.The Weekend: The international bestseller, shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2020
Par Charlotte Wood. 2020
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER One of The Times books of the year: 'Ripples with wit, insight and vitality' 'The Weekend…
is so great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice... Wood is an agonisingly gifted writer: I am now going to read all her other books!'Marian Keyes'It was refreshing to encounter a novel that so profoundly sympathises with women on the forbidding cusp of being classified as "elderly". Wood ably conveys that older women didn't used to be old, and that the experience of ageing is universally bewildering'Lionel Shriver (Observer, Books of the year) 'Riveting' Elizabeth Day 'A perfect, funny, insightful, novel about women, friendship, and ageing. I loved it'Nina Stibbe 'Authentic, funny, brutally well-observed... As with the novels of Elizabeth Strout or Anne Tyler, these are characters not written to please, but to feel true'The Sunday Times 'Glorious... Charlotte Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout' Guardian'The Weekend triumphantly brings to life the honest, inner lives of women' Independent'A lovely, lively, intelligent, funny book' Tessa Hadley 'One sharp, funny, heartbreaking and gorgeously-written package. I loved it' Paula Hawkins'One of those deceptively compact novels that continues to open doors in your mind long after the last page' Patrick GaleSylvie, Jude, Wendy and Adele have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.These women couldn't be more different: Jude, a once-famous restaurateur with a spotless life and a long-standing affair with a married man; Wendy, an acclaimed feminist intellectual; Adele, a former star of the stage, now practically homeless. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for one last weekend at Sylvie's old beach house. But fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface - a storm that will either remind them of the bond they share, or sweep away their friendship for good.Out of Touch: The heartbreaking and hopeful must read
Par Haleh Agar. 2020
'A must read' Sunday Express'Heartbreaking and hopeful' Woman's Weekly'A riveting and captivating new novel about the complexities of sibling relations'…
Grazia 'Raw and hopeful, this book is about what pulls us apart and what keeps us together' Rowan Hisayo Bucahan'One of those books that had me ignoring my phone, family and sensible bedtimes. Immersive, gorgeously rich and beautifully written. I loved it' Lia LouisA man hit Ava with his car, a few miles from her bungalow. He brings her flowers in hospital, and offers to do her laundry. He also brings her the letter she dropped that night on the road.In New York, Ava's brother Michael receives the same letter. He thinks about it as he steps out of the shower into his curtainless bedroom. A naked woman stares at him from the apartment across. They both laugh and cover up with their arms. Brother and sister cannot avoid the letter: their estranged father is dying and wants to meet. Can they forgive their father, and face each other after all these years apart? Will new unexpected friends offer the advice and comfort they need?With sharp wit and sensitivity, Out of Touch is a deeply absorbing story about love and vulnerability, sex and power, and the unbreakable bonds of family.Nevada Days (MacLehose Press Editions #5)
Par Bernardo Atxaga. 2017
Nevada Days is a fictionalised account of Atxaga's nine months' stay as writer-in-residence at the Centre for Basque Studies at…
the University of Nevada. He is accompanied by his wife, Ángela, who is also doing research there, and by their two daughters. During their first few weeks, the family encounter a strange mapache (racoon), which is always staring at them from the garden, a flight of helicopters immediately overhead, a black widow spider, a warning about bears, a party of prisoners in the desert, a lake that is somehow far too calm and too blue, and, not long into their stay, the kidnap and murder of a young girl living in the house right next door.Atxaga tells us about all these strange encounters, and about his colleagues at the university, about the trips the family make to California and across the Sierra Nevada and to Lake Tahoe, but this narrative is also interspersed with accounts of his dreams, with stories from his past.Nevada Days seductively weaves together past and present, and shows us how deeply marked we are by experience and history and relationships, however fleeting or enduring, and reminds us what a very strange thing life is.Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull CostaStorm Birds
Par Einar Karason. 2018
"This gripping novel is as good at describing the magnificent seascapes and the unforgiving elements as it is at examining…
the inner lives of the besieged crew, toiling ceaselessly against implacable nature" -Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR"Gripping and Exciting" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEARIn February 1959, several Icelandic trawlers were caught in a storm off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What happened there is the inspiration for this novel. Not since The Perfect Storm has there been a book which captures the sheer drama and terror of a crisis at sea. Karason is an exceptional storyteller, an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner.The side trawler Mafurinn is hit by a major storm just as they prepare to turn for home. Thirty-two men aboard, and a hold full of redfish. The sea is cold enough to kill a man in minutes, and the trawler quickly ices up in the biting frost and violent tempest. The heavy icing weighs down the already fully laden craft, which is pummelled by one breaker after another - and here, out on the open sea, there is no exit route. Distress signals from other ships in the same circumstance and be heard from the fishing grounds around them. It is a battle of life and death.Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin BatesFidelity: 'The book about infidelity that has shaken up Italy - and is coming to Netflix' (The Times)
Par Marco Missiroli. 2021
SOON TO BE A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES 'An absolute scorcher' Evening Standard'Fidelity thrilled me, made me think and moved me…
deeply. As deep as any literature and as irresistible as any gossip' Jonathan Safran Foer'Intimate and ultimately moving... completely absorbing'Daily Mail'Cuts right through to the darkness of our inner lives'Roberto Saviano'A gripping novel exploring the tensions in an apparently idyllic marriage' Financial Times 'A must-read'Sydney Morning HeraldCarlo, a part-time professor of creative writing, and Margherita, an architect-turned-real estate-agent: a happily married couple in their mid-thirties, perfectly attuned to each other's restlessness. They are in love, but they also harbour desires that stray beyond the confines of their bedroom: Carlo longs for the quiet beauty of one of his students, Sofia; Margherita fantasises about the strong hands of her physiotherapist, Andrea.But it is love, with its unassuming power, which ultimately pulls them from the brink, aided by Margherita's mother Anna, the couple's anchor and lighthouse - a wise, proud seamstress hiding her own disappointments.But after eight years of repressed desires and the birth of a son, when the past resurfaces in the form of books sent anonymously, will love be enough to save them? A no. 1 international bestsellerSoon to be a Netflix show directed by Andrea Molaioli, director of the Netflix hit series SuburraWinner of the Premio Strega GiovaniShortlisted for the Premio Strega'Powerful, delicate, exquisite' Claudio Magris 'Masterful... The ending is just as good as that of Joyce's The Dead' Corriere della Sera'You'll feel like taking refuge in this book and never leaving its confines' La Stampa'With all-encompassing writing, Marco Missiroli opens the rooms of his characters and the streets of Milan, the thoughts and the concealed desires, makes dialogue and silences reverberate with the spontaneity of great narrators' Il FoglioThe Hummingbird: ‘Magnificent’ (Guardian)
Par Sandro Veronesi. 2019
'MAGNIFICENT' GUARDIAN'A TOWERING ACHIEVEMENT' FINANCIAL TIMES'INVENTIVE, BOLD, UNEXPECTED' THE SUNDAY TIMES'Everything that makes the novel worthwhile and engaging is here:…
warmth, wit, intelligence, love, death, high seriousness, low comedy, philosophy, subtle personal relationships and the complex interior life of human beings'Guardian'Not since William Boyd's Any Human Heart has a novel captured the feast and famine nature of a single life with such invention and tenderness'Financial Times'There is a pleasing sense of having grappled with the real stuff of life: loss, grief, love, desire, pain, uncertainty, confusion, joy, despair - all while having fun'The Sunday Times'The kind of novel summer is made for: instantly immersive, playfully inventive, effortlessly wise'Observer'Masterly: a cabinet of curiosities and delights, packed with small wonders'Ian McEwan'A real masterpiece. A funny, touching, profound book that made me cry like a little girl on the last page'Leïla Slimani'A remarkable accomplishment, a true gift to the world'Michael Cunningham'Ardent, gripping, and inventive to the core'Jhumpa LahiriMarco Carrera is 'the hummingbird,' a man with the almost supernatural ability to stay still as the world around him continues to change.As he navigates the challenges of life - confronting the death of his sister and the absence of his brother; taking care of his parents as they approach the end of their lives; raising his granddaughter when her mother, Marco's own child, can no longer be there for her; coming to terms with his love for the enigmatic Luisa - Marco Carrera comes to represent the quiet heroism that pervades so much of our everyday existence.A thrilling novel about the need to look to the future with hope and live with intensity to the very end.THE NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLEROver 300,000 copies soldSoon to be a major motion pictureWinner of the Premio StregaWinner of the Prix du Livre EtrangerBook of the Year for the Corriere della SeraMercury Pictures Presents
Par Anthony Marra. 2022
The epic tale of a brilliant woman who must reinvent herself to survive, moving from Mussolini's Italy to 1940s Los…
Angeles-a timeless story of love, deceit, and sacrifice from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital PhenomenaLike many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father's arrest.Fifteen years later, on the eve of America's entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won't speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese American actor, can't escape the studio's narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria's only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.Over the coming months, as the bright lights go dark across Los Angeles, Mercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwriters, once-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturists, and refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into war, Maria rises through a maze of conflicting politics, divided loyalties, and jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father's past threatens Maria's carefully constructed facade, she must finally confront her father's fate-and her own.Written with intelligence, wit, and an exhilarating sense of possibility, Mercury Pictures Presents spans many moods and tones, from the heartbreaking to the ecstatic. It is a love letter to life's bit players, a panorama of an era that casts a long shadow over our own, and a tour de force by a novelist whose work The Washington Post calls 'a flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles.''If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID'A superb storyteller' PETER MAYA BIZARRE DISCOVERYAn unidentified cadaver is found…
in a freezer in an unoccupied luxury house. No-one seems to know or care who it is or who placed it there. When DS Alexandra Cupidi is handed the case, she can have no idea it will lead her to a series of murderous cover-ups and buried secrets. Namely the discovery of the skeleton of public-school boy, Trevor Wood, beneath a housing development.A HISTORIC CRIMEHis disappearance twenty five years earlier had almost passed unnoticed. But as evidence surfaces that his fate was linked to long suppressed rumours of sexual abuse, Cupidi, her teenage daughter Zoe and her friend Bill South find themselves up against powerful forces who will try to silence them. A BURIED LIFEDigging deep into the secrets that are held underground leads to Cupidi's realisation that crime and power are seldom far apart. There are dangerous connections between the two cases, which are complicated by Constable Jill Ferriter's dating habits, a secret liaison and the underground life of Trevor Grey's only friend.The most riveting and atmospheric DS Alexandra Cupidi novel so far, Grave's End confronts the crisis in housing, environmental politics, the protection given to badgers by the law. With meticulously mastered characters and a brooding setting, this third book in the series confirms William Shaw as one of the finest crime writers. (P)2020 Quercus Editions LimitedStaten Island Noir (Akashic Noir)
Par Patricia Smith. 2012
"When They Are Done with Us" by Patricia Smith was selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories 2013,…
edited by Otto Penzler and Lisa ScottolineBrand-new stories by: Bill Loehfelm, S.J. Rozan, Ted Anthony, Todd Craig, Ashley Dawson, Bruce DeSilva, Louisa Ermelino, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Michael Largo, Mike Penncavage, Linda Nieves-Powell, Patricia Smith, Shay Youngblood, and Edward Joyce."Staten Island, the last of New York City's five boroughs to enter Akashic's noir series, severs as the setting for this exceptionally strong anthology."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Smith's introduction is a revelation. She knows the Island I have in my head. It was like finding a literary sibling, separated since birth."--Washington Independent"It's not enough for noir to be dark. It's got to be bad-ass. Its words, its decaying and horrible beauty have got to hit you like a spiked heel dragged from your guts to your gullet. It's got to twist the hot knife of passion in that soft space right below your belly while pumping bullets into your heart. It's got to make you bleed. Akashic Books' latest in their noir series, Staten Island Noir features some dusky and drop-dead gorgeous gems (emphasis on the dead) that do just that."--Grub Street Daily"Staten Island is the forgotten borough, lacking a subway system, left out of Jay-Z's songs, known for organized crime, bad accents, fake tans, and garbage--which makes it a rich setting for Akashic's noir series...In a thrilling tilt-a-whirl of crime and drama, editor Patricia Smith has carefully chosen writers concerned with the true nature of the small suburban borough."--Electric Literature's "The Outlet""Each story in this enjoyable collection has its own charms, if the words 'enjoyable' or 'charms' can be used with these dark tales, and each can stand-alone. However, if, like me, you had always looked at Staten Island as banal and benign, by the book's end your ideas will be forever changed."--ReviewingTheEvidence.comPatricia Smith, editor of Staten Island Noir, has won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for her short story included in the anthology, "When They Are Done with Us."The Mountain in the Sea
Par Ray Nayler. 2022
'I loved this novel's brain and heart'DAVID MITCHELL, AUTHOR OF CLOUD ATLAS'A first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful,…
and redemptive'JEFF VANDERMEER, AUTHOR OF ANNIHILATIONThere are creatures in the water of Con Dao. To the locals, they're monsters. To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity. To the team of three sent to study them, a revelation. Their minds are unlike ours. Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting. They can communicate. And they want us to leave.When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn't pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA- a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence - has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research.But the stakes are high: the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of their advancements. And no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.Betty: The International Bestseller
By Tiffany McDaniel.
'NOT A STORY YOU WILL SOON FORGET' Karen Joy Fowler, author of Man Booker Prize finalist We Are All Completely…
Beside Ourselves'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words.Mercury Pictures Presents
Par Anthony Marra. 2022
The epic tale of a brilliant woman who must reinvent herself to survive, moving from Mussolini's Italy to 1940s Los…
Angeles-a timeless story of love, deceit, and sacrifice from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital PhenomenaLike many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father's arrest.Fifteen years later, on the eve of America's entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won't speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese American actor, can't escape the studio's narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria's only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.Over the coming months, as the bright lights go dark across Los Angeles, Mercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwriters, once-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturists, and refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into war, Maria rises through a maze of conflicting politics, divided loyalties, and jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father's past threatens Maria's carefully constructed facade, she must finally confront her father's fate-and her own.Written with intelligence, wit, and an exhilarating sense of possibility, Mercury Pictures Presents spans many moods and tones, from the heartbreaking to the ecstatic. It is a love letter to life's bit players, a panorama of an era that casts a long shadow over our own, and a tour de force by a novelist whose work The Washington Post calls 'a flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles.'(P) 2022 Penguin Audio