Chosen as a BOOK OF THE YEAR in the Sunday Times, Stylist and
Observer 'A multifaceted novel that is funny, verbally inventive
and moving' Sunday Times, Book of the Year 'In Mercury Pictures
Presents . . . the story moves between the real war and the better
version Hollywood is busy creating. Sometimes tragic, often
hilarious' KAREN JOY FOWLER, Observer, Books of the Year 'Its prose
pulses with humour, wit and affection' Mail on Sunday 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 Phenomena Like 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 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'.
General
Imprint: |
John Murray Publishers Ltd
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
August 2023 |
First published: |
2022 |
Authors: |
Anthony Marra
|
Dimensions: |
196 x 128 x 32mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
432 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-399-80441-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-399-80441-3 |
Barcode: |
9781399804417 |
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