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Actress
Author: Anne Enright
Narrator: Anne Enright
Unabridged: 8 hr 4 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Published: 03/03/2020
Category: Fiction - Literary
Synopsis
A brilliant and moving novel about celebrity, sexual power, and a daughters search to understand her
mothers hidden truths.
Katherine ODell is an Irish theater legend. As her daughter, Norah, retraces her mothers celebrated career and
bohemian life, she delves into long-kept secrets, both her mothers and her own. Katherine began her career on
Irelands bus-and-truck circuit before making it to Londons West End, Broadway, and finally Hollywood. Every
moment of her life is a performance, with young Norah standing in the wings. But the mother-daughter romance
cannot survive Katherines past or the worlds damage. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, Katherines grip on
reality grows fitful. Fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a bizarre crime.
As Norahs role gradually changes to Katherines protector, caregiver, and finally legacy-keeper, she revisits her
mothers life of fiercely kept secrets; and Norah reveals in turn the secrets of her own sexual and emotional comingof-age story. Her narrative is shaped by three braided searchesfor her fathers identity; for her mothers motive in
donning a Chanel suit one morning and shooting a TV producer in the foot; and her own search for a husband, family,
and work she loves.
Bringing to life two generations of women with difficult sexual histories, both assaulted and silenced, both finding
or failing to findtheir powers of recovery, Actress touches a raw and timely nerve. With virtuosic storytelling and in
prose at turns lyrical and knife-sharp, Anne Enright takes readers to the heart of the maddening yet tender love that
binds a mother and daughter.