Description
Actress is a brilliant and moving novel about fame, sexual power, and a daughter's search to understand her mother's hidden truths.
It is the story of Irish theatre legend Katherine O'Dell, as written by her daughter Norah. It tells of early stardom in Hollywood, of highs and lows on the stages of Dublin and London's West End. Katherine's life is a grand performance, with young Norah watching from the wings.
But this romance between mother and daughter cannot survive Katherine's past or the world's damage. As Norah uncovers her mother's secrets, she acquires a few of her own. Then fame turns to infamy when Katherine decides to commit a bizarre crime.
Actress is about a daughter's search for the dark secret in the bright star, and what finally drove Katherine mad.
Brilliantly capturing the glamour of post-war America and the shabbiness of 1970s Dublin, Actress is an intensely moving, disturbing novel about mothers and daughters and the men in their lives. A scintillating examination of the corrosive nature of celebrity, it is also a sad and triumphant tale of freedom from bad love, and from the avid gaze of the crowd.
Endorsements
Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2020
Man Booker Prize–winner Anne Enright