Mercury Pictures Presents

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the David J. Langum,Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction • The epic tale of a brilliant woman who must reinvent herself to survivemoving from Mussolini’s Italy to 1940s Los Angeles—a timeless story of lovedeceitand sacrifice from the award-winning author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena “A genuinely moving and life-affirming novel that’s a true joy to read.”—Celeste Ngauthor of Little Fires Everywhere “A gorgeous book . . . sublime.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPRThe GuardianBooklist Like many before herMaria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Romewhere every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of churchMaria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father’s arrest. Fifteen years lateron the eve of America’s entry into World War IIMaria is an associate producer at Mercury Picturestrying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won’t speak to her. Her bossa man of many toupeeshas been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfrienda virtuoso Chinese American actorcan’t escape the studio’s narrow typecasting. And the studio itselfMaria’s only home in exileteeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Over the coming monthsas the bright lights go dark across Los AngelesMercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwritersonce-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturistsand refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into warMaria rises through a maze of conflicting politicsdivided loyaltiesand jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father’s past threatens Maria’s carefully constructed facadeshe must finally confront her father’s fate—and her own. Written with intelligencewitand an exhilarating sense of possibilityMercury Pictures Presents spans many moods and tonesfrom the heartbreaking to the ecstatic. It is a love letter to life’s bit playersa panorama of an era that casts a long shadow over our ownand 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.”