![]() ![]() 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.įifteen 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. Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. This event will take place on Monday, August 15 at 7:30pm ET at Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition. Tickets are $5 and and can be used as a coupon towards your purchase of Mercury Pictures Presents the night of the event. Please note that masks will be required for all attendees. ![]() An entertaining read that took Anthony Marra 8 years to write and showcases his penchant for messy people.Porter Square Books is happy to welcome Anthony Marra for the release his novel, Mercury Pictures Presents! Named one of the most anticipated books of 2022 by BookPage, Mercury Pictures Presents is "The epic tale of a brilliant woman who must reinvent herself to survive, moving from Mussolini’s Italy to 1940s Los Angeles-a timeless story of love, deceit, and sacrifice from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena." Joining him in conversation will be Christopher Castellani, author and artistic director of GrubStreet. His prose is so rich that you may find yourself reading at half speed to avoid missing any gems. Marra weaves the lives of several generations into a compelling story which explores issues (racism, misogyny, censorship, nationalism) that are still relevant today. He also deftly handles the restrictions on resident aliens during the war and the internment of the Japanese and the prejudice they faced. In this novel, Marra brings to light the rarely discussed persecution of many innocent European refugees who found low level jobs in the movie industry producing propaganda films for the US government, yet were later ironically labeled as enemy aliens. The challenges the characters face and their attempts to repair the mistakes made in their relationships draw the reader further into the story. Amidst a wealth of well drawn characters is a 2nd rate movie mogul, Artie Feldman, whose antics and often hilarious dialogue are right out of the screwball comedies of that era and makes for laugh-out-loud reading. She is hired at a B-movie studio, Mercury Pictures, and rises through the ranks to become an uncredited and underpaid associate producer, haunted by the inadvertent role she played in her father's arrest and imprisonment. Set in 1940's Hollywood and Italy, this is a sweeping novel that centers around Maria Lagana, a strong-willed Italian refugee who emigrates with her mother to the US after her Socialist father was sentenced to internal exile in Mussolini's Italy. Watch " Mercury Pictures Presents: An Evening with Anthony Marra and Celeste Ng" Watch " #PouredOver: Anthony Marra on MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS" He was born in Washington, DC, studied in Eastern Europe, taught at Stanford, and now resides in New England with his wife. The Literary Society of the Southwest is pleased to have him as a returning speaker. He knows exactly where to insert historical anecdotes and when to opt for pure invention, weaving it all together with witty asides.”Īnthony Marra received his BA from the University of Southern California and his MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. ![]() At a time when these themes dominate American political life, this novel and the questions it raises feel all the more urgent to me.” The Los Angeles Times praised this novel by saying that Marra “possesses a seemingly inexhaustible imagination. Marra said, “This is my first novel set in America, and though mid-century Los Angeles is new terrain, this novel is preoccupied with the same concerns as my previous books: political coercion, historical amnesia and falsified realities. In 2017, Marra was included in Granta’s decennial list of best young American novelists and in 2018 he won the $50,000 Simpson Prize, which he put toward finishing his long-awaited second novel, Mercury Pictures Presents, which he began in 2014. Marra has also been longlisted for the National Book Award and honored with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has won the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Whiting Award, and many other prestigious prizes. Anthony Marra is the New York Times bestselling author of The Tsar of Love and Techno and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.
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