
Actress (Hardback)
Anne Enright (author)- 10+ in stock

A deft novel of mother-daughter relationships and the dark underbelly of fame and adulation, Actress deftly unpacks the secrets and lies of a renowned theatre performer and the effects of her notoriety on the child who idolised her.
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
From Anne Enright, the Booker-winning Irish author, a brilliant and moving novel about fame, sexual power, and a daughter's search to understand her mother's hidden truths.
This is the story of Irish theatre legend Katherine O'Dell, as told 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 truth: the dark secret in the bright star, and what drove Katherine finally 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.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787332065
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 392 g
Dimensions: 222 x 144 x 144 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A meditative, elusive, exploratory book … full of lucsious meloncholy.' - The Guardian
'Witty and brilliant, a Booker-winners portrait of an angry daughter and her wild actress-mother' - The Sunday Times
'Enright triumphs as chameleon: memorist, journalist, critic, daughter - her emotional intelligence shows no bounds' - The Observer
'Enright crafts superb sentences, some of which you want to slip into your pocket, like stones' - The Financial Times
'Enright writes with insight and compassion on an industry that loves to chew up and spit out the female body, but Norah's loving act of testimony to her mother's life struggles to acquire its own power.' - The Daily Mail
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“Simply brilliant....”
“Actress “ is the story of Irish theatre legend and one-time Hollywood star, Katherine O’Dell, told by her only child, Norah. Norah , a novelist, married with children now older than her mother sets out to figure out... More
“Life on the stage!”
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“Performance Of A Lifetime”
A beautiful, eloquent graceful read. Not a phrase or line wasted. I still think now, that she doesn’t get enough credit for being such a talented writer.
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