Stardust, Joseph Kanon
Stardust, Joseph Kanon
1 Rating(s)
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Stardust

Author: Joseph Kanon

Narrator: T. Ryder Smith

Unabridged: 18 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/04/2011


Synopsis

The acclaimed, bestselling author of The Good German and Los Alamos returns with his most absorbing and accomplished novel yet—a mesmerizing tale of Hollywood, postwar political intrigue, and one man's determination to learn the truth about his brother's death.

Hollywood, 1945. Ben Collier has just arrived from war-torn Europe to find his brother has died in mysterious circumstances. Why would a man with a beautiful wife, a successful movie career, and a heroic past choose to kill himself?

Ben enters the uneasy world beneath the glossy shine of the movie business, where politics and the dream factories collide and Communist witch hunts are rendering the biggest star makers vulnerable. Even here, where the devastation of Europe seems no more real than a painted movie set, the war casts long and dangerous shadows. When Ben learns troubling facts about his own family’s past and embarks on a love affair that never should have happened, he is caught in a web of deception that shakes his moral foundation to its core.

Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Stardust flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller evoking both the glory days of the movies and the emergence of a dark strain of American political life.

About Joseph Kanon

Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award–winning author of Los Alamos and nine other novels: The Prodigal SpyAlibiStardustIstanbul PassageLeaving BerlinDefectorsThe AccompliceThe Berlin Exchange, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Other awards include the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers and the Human Writes Award of the Anne Frank Foundation. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ed on February 18, 2015

I'm conflicted about this book. The topic, post WW II witch hunting for communists in the movie industry, is something I am interested in. The characters are interesting and believable. The plot, though, is often confusing. Ben Collier returns from Europe to hear that his very successful and heroic......more

Goodreads review by James on August 08, 2011

Beginning with Los Alamos, Jospeh Kanon has written a number of very entertaining books set in a recent historical context. Stardust: A Novel is set in Hollywood in the months immediately following World War II, and Kanon creates a vivid portrayal of the time and place that sounds very much like the......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth (Alaska) on January 02, 2023

In November 1945, Ben Collier is on a train from New York to California to see his brother who is likely dying. On the trip west, Ben meets Sol Lashner, head of Continental Studios, a small film company in Hollywood. Ben's brother Danny was a writer for Continental. Danny Kohler, who didn't change h......more

Goodreads review by Madeline on September 15, 2011

My mother (who very much needs a Goodreads account) referred this to us. It's compulsively readable, sexy, and intelligent. I carried it with me everywhere until I finished it. As a mystery novel, Stardust is almost perfect. It does everything that a good Elizabeth George or James Ellroy novel does,......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on January 12, 2019

This is one of those books that is good but would be better if it were shorter, like about a hundred pages shorter. A tougher editor would have forced cuts that would have produced a stronger, tighter, leaner, more propulsive book. I like long books, but they need to earn their length, and this one......more