The Actress: A Novel

Description

A "fun, funny, steamy, and unputdownable" (Entertainment Weekly) new novel from bestselling author Amy Sohn, in which an ambitious young actress discovers that every marriage is a mystery and that sometimes the greatest performances don't take place on screen. When Hollywood heartthrob Steven Weller pulls Maddy Freed out of obscurity for a starring role in his newest Oscar-worthy film, she feels her career roaring onto the express track. Steven's professional attention soon turns personal, and Maddy falls headlong into a fairytale romance with the world's most eligible bachelor. She's sure there's no truth to the gay rumors that have followed him for years, but soon realizes she cannot afford to ask too many questions about his complicated past. A "sexy and engaging" (Emma Straub) page-turner set in a tantalizing world of glamour and scandal, of red carpets and ruthless competition, of scheming agents and the prying eye of the press, The Actress sits "perfectly between Joan Didion's Play It as It Lays and Jackie Collins's Hollywood Wives....A valuable contribution to the canon of Hollywood fiction" (Slate). Booklist calls it "addictive...This may well be Sohn's breakout book."

Amy Sohn's novels include Prospect Park West, Motherland, The Actress, and The Man Who Hated Women. Her articles have appeared in New York, Harper's Bazaar, Playboy, and The Nation. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

"[The Actress sits] perfectly between Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays and Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives.... The great strength of The Actress lies in Sohn's narrativizing of Maddy's... journey from innocent to hardened veteran, as a Gaslight-style mystery. Our heroine is dropped into the cauldron of Hollywood life, Sohn very smartly dramatizes the contradictory dictates the true-to-life industry imposes on many actresses... A valuable contribution to the canon of Hollywood fiction-a canon which is actually, incredibly, more sorely lacking strong female points of view than even Hollywood movies." * Slate * "Fun, funny, steamy and unputdownable." * Entertainment Weekly, "Must List" * "Amy Sohn turns her razor-sharp eye on stardom in this sexy and engaging novel. The Actress delves deep into the nature of love and marriage, and offers a behind-the-scenes studio tour of Hollywood to boot." -- Emma Straub, author of The Vacationers "In the story of Maddy Freed, indie actress goneHollywood A-list, Amy Sohn delivers at once a serious Bildungsroman and asurreptitious pleasure. The Actress is juicy and addictive, aJamesian Page Six of a novel." -- Elizabeth Gaffney, author of When the World Was Young "Amy Sohn's unputdownable The Actress is like Henry James crossbred with the very best of US Weekly. An addictive saga of love, lust, fame, and friendship centered on a fascinating question: are we who we pretend to be?" -- Elisa Albert, author of The Book of Dahlia and How This Night is Different "Charismatic, sophisticated and beguiling, The Actress unfurls as seamlessly as a red carpet on opening night. Amy Sohn has written a textured, fresh take on classic, incendiary Hollywood tropes-the closeted leading man, arranged marriage, ambitious ingenues, ruthless agents-that is also a relatable, nuanced story of love and marriage. The Actress is an intelligent and humane novel that manages to civilize Hollywood while honoring its often overlooked complexities and still leaving its wicked vitality intact." -- Elizabeth Kelly, author of Apologize, Apologize! and The Last Summer of the Camperdowns "Amy Sohn peels back the tabloid curtain and portrays, in granular detail, the emotional and vocational machinations of a made-in-Hollywood marriage. The Actress is a riveting and frothy novel." -- Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine "Amy Sohn's The Actress is one heck of a lot of fun to read and it also offers up rich moral complexities. Maddy, the main character, is both modern and ageless; the young woman who wants it all NOW." -- Darcey Steinke, author of Sister Golden Hair "Amy Sohn's The Actress is gorgeous and blood-tingling, is smart and fun, is perfect. It's timely, with links to the real world that go much deeper than mere references. It's a rare treat to read a book you know will be beloved." -- Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life "Sohn's fictional portrait of a Hollywood marriage gives a real sense of the gritty limelight." -Marie Claire