Overview

Hollywood Wives meets A Visit from the Goon Squad in this captivating Hollywood drama, an ""utterly alive, dazzlingly brilliant, and so true-to-life"" (Andrew Lipstein, author of Last Resort) emotional debut novel unraveling the secrets, struggles, and fierce rivalries of actresses navigating celebrity culture, complex careers, and personal truths during a high-stakes award season. As Hollywood prepares for its most glamorous evening, five actresses compete to see who will claim the top prize. Adria, a dignified and highly regarded grand dame of the movie industry, is intent on cementing her legacy as one of the greatest thespians of all time, even as the younger generation creeps up quickly behind her. Bitty must keep a nervous breakdown--and an increasingly debilitating alcohol addiction--at bay, as she searches for genuine closeness in an unforgiving landscape. Contessa, a former child star, is determined to make the world, and her leading man, take her seriously. Davina attempts to find her footing in superficial Los Angeles, a far cry from her roots as a serious London stage actress. And Jenny--always the underdog to her rival, Adria--sees this award season as her personal redemption, a chance to atone for past mistakes and make up for missed opportunities. With humor, wit, and an insider's insight, The Talent peels back the layers of women who are in the business of being perceived. And while they work to push their careers forward and maintain the public's goodwill, all five are forced to control truths about themselves that they would rather ignore: Could Adria and Jenny have been a team all these years, rather than bitter enemies? Is it their responsibility to offer a lifeline to poor Bitty, who is clearly teetering on the edge? Should Contessa and Davina dim their own rising stars to make those around them more comfortable? What do women in the spotlight owe to each other, and themselves?

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9781668075470

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Reviews

"""At first glance, The Talent is a dishy satire--a take-no-prisoners account of the vapidity of Hollywood, the vacuity of celebrity. Daniel D'Addario's confident debut is something far wilier, though. The novel explores the rivalries and anxieties of an ingenue, an icon, a serious thespian, a perennial almost-ran, and a now-grown child star, but isn't simply about the lives of actors. It's a book about performance as an art, and the social performance of the self, a biting but somehow affectionate novel about contemporary life."" --Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND ""At once a sumptuous Hollywood novel and a trenchant exploration of fame, THE TALENT lays bare the horrors and glories of our hyper-performative, status-obsessed era. D'Addario delivers a performance worthy of the stars he writes about--biting, heartbreaking, deeply imagined, and entrancing."" --Daniel Lefferts, author of WAYS AND MEANS ""Oscar bait, people say, without ever going into how exactly those cinematic worms get put on their hooks, which hands dig for them and come out covered in dirt for their effort. No one mentions it--until Daniel D'Addario's novel. THE TALENT is a thrilling, engrossing, behind-the-scenes look at who gets muddy in the run-up to awards season, as five potential best actresses campaign to catch the big one. You won't be able to put it down."" --Julia Phillips, bestselling author of DISAPPEARING EARTH ""Utterly alive, dazzlingly brilliant, and so true-to-life I literally had to stop myself--multiple times!--from Googling the titular leading ladies, The Talent is in a class of its own. With audacity and empathy, acuity and wit, D'Addario interrogates ambition, celebrity, and legacy to devastating effect. What a thrill to know, finally, what it's like to peer into the big screen from the other side."" --Andrew Lipstein, author of LAST RESORT and THE VEGAN ""You don't have to be an Oscar obsessive to fall in love with Daniel D'Addario's THE TALENT. At once a captivating, razor-sharp peek under the red carpet of a tumultuous awards season and moving portrait of women wrestling with the profound weight of the A-list, this unforgettable novel will make certain that the next time an actor declares an award to be heavier than it looks, you will know precisely what they mean."" --Bobby Finger, author of FOUR SQUARES and THE OLD PLACE, winner of the Crook's Corner Book Prize"

Author Information

Daniel D'Addario is chief correspondent at Variety. He has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary and is among the moderators of Variety's Actors on Actors video series. He was previously the television critic for Variety and for Time. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives with his husband and two daughters in Brooklyn.

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