Mercury Pictures presents: a novel
(Book)
“A genuinely moving and life-affirming novel that’s a true joy to read.”—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere
“A gorgeous book . . . sublime.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Guardian, Booklist
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 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.”
Notes
Marra, A. (2022). Mercury Pictures presents: a novel. First edition. London, ENK ; New York, NY, Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Marra, Anthony. 2022. Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel. London, ENK ; New York, NY, Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Marra, Anthony, Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel. London, ENK ; New York, NY, Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Marra, Anthony. Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel. First edition. London, ENK ; New York, NY, Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, 2022.
Record Information
Last Sierra Extract Time | Apr 30, 2024 12:34:47 PM |
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Last File Modification Time | Apr 30, 2024 12:34:59 PM |
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | May 03, 2024 04:39:11 AM |
MARC Record
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010 | |a 2021049651 | ||
020 | |a 9780451495204|q (hardcover) | ||
020 | |a 0451495209|q (hardcover) | ||
040 | |b eng|e rda | ||
082 | 0 | 0 | |a 813/.6|2 23 |
100 | 1 | |a Marra, Anthony,|e author. | |
245 | 1 | 0 | |a Mercury Pictures presents :|b a novel /|c Anthony Marra. |
250 | |a First edition. | ||
264 | 1 | |a London, ENK ;|a New York, NY :|b Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House,|c [2022] | |
264 | 4 | |c ©2022 | |
300 | |a 416 pages ;|c 25 cm | ||
336 | |a text|b txt|2 rdacontent | ||
337 | |a unmediated|b n|2 rdamedia | ||
338 | |a volume|b nc|2 rdacarrier | ||
520 | |a "When we first meet Maria Lagana, she's rewriting scripts at Mercury Pictures, a failing Hollywood studio known for its schlock. Maria's job is to re-craft dialogue and action to circumvent the censors, a skill she's mysteriously adept at. Born in Italy, as a teenager Maria witnessed Mussolini's censors arrest her father, an event that will destroy her family and burden Maria with questions of guilt and responsibility she will carry with her throughout this wondrous, far-reaching novel. Like many before her, Maria has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Despite its cheap production values and factory-approach to making movies, Mercury Pictures is a nexus of refugees and emigres, each struggling to reinvent themselves in the land of celluloid. There's Artie, the studio boss, a man of many toupees who barely escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe; there's Anna, a set designer, who ran afoul of Hitler; and there's Eddie Lu, a struggling actor and Maria's boyfriend, who despite being born in Los Angeles encounters the worst of America's xenophobia. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, everything changes for Maria and her world, forcing her come to terms with her father's fate--and her own"--|c Provided by publisher. | ||
650 | 0 | |a Immigrants|z United States|v Fiction. | |
650 | 0 | |a Motion pictures|x Production and direction|v Fiction. | |
650 | 0 | |a World War, 1939-1945|z United States|v Fiction. | |
651 | 0 | |a Los Angeles (Calif.)|v Fiction. | |
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655 | 7 | |a War fiction.|2 lcgft | |
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