Actress: A Novel

by Anne Enright

Overview

Longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction
One of Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020

“A critique, a confession, a love letter—and another brilliant novel from Anne Enright.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post

Katherine O’Dell is an Irish theater legend. Every moment of her life is a performance, with her daughter, Norah, standing in the wings. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, however, Katherine’s grip on reality grows fitful. Fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a bizarre crime.

As Norah’s role gradually changes to Katherine’s protector, caregiver, and finally legacy-keeper, she revisits her mother’s life of fiercely kept secrets; and Norah confronts in turn the secrets of her own sexual and emotional coming-of-age. With virtuosic storytelling, Actress weaves together two generations of women with difficult sexual histories, touching a raw and timely nerve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324005636
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Anne Enright is author of seven novels, most recently Actress. She has been awarded the Man Booker Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She lives in Dublin.

Editorial Reviews

"[A] skillfully crafted, emotionally charged novel from an expert practitioner.… Enright has given us another first-rate performance."

National - Malcolm Forbes

"Out in force. Anne Enright, the unofficial rock star of literary fiction, cements her stardom with Actress."

Niamh Donnelly

"Actress absolutely enthralled me.… [An] immersive, masterful novel."

Red magazine - Anya Meyerowitz

"May I recommend Actress by Anne Enright. Her writing is always pitch perfect, but this is truly exquisite. If there is such a thing as the perfect novel, this is it."

Nigella Lawson

"Intoxicating."

New York Times - Mary Gordon

"There is something that seems effortless about Ms. Enright’s writing—an illusion, of course, but one brilliantly sustained."

Wall Street Journal - Sam Sacks

"Anne Enright writes so well that she just might ruin you for anyone else…Stripped raw of any sentimentality, the result is a critique, a confession, a love letter—and another brilliant novel from Anne Enright."

Ron Charles

"Gorgeously written fiction…Enright’s unflinching portrait…is scrupulously developed and painfully moving."

Boston Globe - Wendy Smith

"In Katherine O’Dell, her fictional fallen star of stage and screen… Enright has created a heroine as irresistible to the reader as to her audiences.… She has become a byword for contemporary Irish literary fiction at its finest."

Guardian - Lisa Allardice

"Captivating."

The New Yorker - Sara Resnick

"A perfect jewel of a book, a dark emerald set in the Irish laureate’s fictional tiara, alongside her Man Booker Prize winner The Gathering (2007) and The Green Road (2015). Its brilliance is complex and multifaceted, but completely lucid.… Actress is a deeply humane, often darkly funny novel about the exercise of power over sexually attractive women. The grim subject matter is illuminated by Enright’s acute sensitivity to language.… Enright proves, once again, her genius."

Spectator - Ruth Scurr

"Enright’s indelible images of the primal love between mother and daughter that ebbs, flows, and ultimately abides will stick with readers."

Booklist (starred review)