‘Hollywood, we’re reminded, is after all a through-the-looking glass world, and Byrne writes authoritatively about its illusions and obscene, glittering excess … Compelling’ Daily Mail‘Both eye-poppingly fun and thought-provoking’ The TimesMadou is the most beautiful woman in the world.‘Hollywood, we’re reminded, is after all a through-the-looking glass world, and Byrne writes authoritatively about its illusions and obscene, glittering excess … Compelling’ Daily Mail‘Both eye-poppingly fun and thought-provoking’ The TimesMadou is the most beautiful woman in the world.Discovered in a Berlin cabaret in the roaring twenties, she is brought to the glamour of Los Angeles. She becomes a superstar of the silver screen and Hollywood’s darling, but nothing perfect lasts forever.The cost of beauty is always high, for those who have it and those who live in its shadow. The weight falls on her daughter to untangle the complicated truths of being ordinary beside anextraordinary mother, a woman who has bent and broken and skewed her perception of reality, a woman adored by the world, but from whom her daughter longs to escape.Evocative and deeply moving, Mirror, Mirror is based on Marlene Dietrich’s glittering life, a dramatic novel set in Hollywood’s golden age, that tells the story of mothers and daughters and of time’s war against beauty – and the unbearable pain of a woman when beauty is the only game in town.‘Byrne’s fictional life of a screen siren is thought-provoking as well as hugely entertaining …. Byrne’s Dietrich is called Madou. And she is every bit as glamorous, witty and highly sexed as her reputation suggests…. both eye-poppingly fun and thought-provoking.’ The Times‘Paula Byrne has also drawn on real events for this, a kind of fictionalised memoir of Maria Riva, the daughter of Marlene Dietrich. In Byrne’s book the pair become ‘Kater’ and ‘Madou’ respectively, and while the latter is the most beautiful woman in the world, her child is self-loathing and fat. Daringly, Byrne also grants the mirror that is Madou’s confidante and companion a voice, and not just any voice, but that of Dietrich’s friend, Noel Coward. It shouldn’t work, but it does: Hollywood, we’re reminded, is after all a through-the-looking glass world, and Byrne writes authoritatively about its illusions and obscene, glittering excess…. Compelling.’ Daily MailPaula Byrne is the author the bestselling biographies Perdita, Mad World, The Real Jane Austen, Belle, Kick and The Genius of Jane Austen. She is founder and chief executive of ReLit, the Bibliotherapy Foundation, a charity devoted to the mental health benefits of reading. She is married to Sir Jonathan Bate and lives in Oxford.BASED ON THE LIFE OF HOLLYWOOD STAR MARLENE DIETRICH. Paula is an acclaimed biographer so though Marlene’s name isn’t mentioned, she informs the plot, including her sexual encounters with two Kennedy brothers.THEMES OF BEAUTY AND PRESSURE AS A WOMAN. Intensely relevant to our image-obsessed time, probing how the mirror, camera, and social media can conspire to contort our sense of self and value.MOTHER/DAUGHTER STORY. This is the story of Marlene’s ordinary looking daughter growing up in the shade of her glamorous mother. There is a dark secret about their relationship at the book’s heart.Competition: Marlene Dietrich the life; City of Girls; Everything I never told you; little fires everywhere; us; one day; sweet sorrow; ordinary people; Ma’am darling. Maria Riva; Elizabeth Gilbert; Celeste Ng; David Nicholls; Maggie O’Farrell; diana evans; Craig Brown
Publicat de: HarperCollins Publishers