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Actress

by Anne Enright

Narrator Anne Enright

This audiobook uses AI narration.

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Length 8 hours 4 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“My usual policy (with a few notable exceptions) is that an audiobook is almost always better when read by the author, who brings, if nothing else, the emotional resonance of speaking words she has written. In no case so far has that paid off as grandly as with this book and this author, a born actress herself, not for her polish but for what feels like its opposite, a swervy, drolly impulsive style of speech that keeps surprising you mid-sentence—mid-word!—with shifts in rhythm and emphasis. its a good match for her tale—a grownup daughter recalling the once-famous Irish actress who was her mother—which follows no pat arc of a life but is deliciously full of sentence-by-sentence observations and odd bits of fully lived life, mostly in 1970s Dublin. A treat.”
— Tom • Phinney Books

Bookseller recommendation

“In this new fiction by Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, a daughter delves into her past to uncover the truth behind her mother’s life as a famed actress of screen and stage. Wry, personal, darkly comedic at times, Actress simmers with insight and emotional power. Anne Enright’s performance of her own work is brilliant, not to be missed! This was my #1 favorite audiobook of 2020.”
— Noelle • Oblong Books

Bookseller recommendation

“My usual policy (with a few notable exceptions) is that an audiobook is almost always better when read by the author, who brings, if nothing else, the emotional resonance of speaking words she has written. In no case so far has that paid off as grandly as with this book and this author, a born actress herself, not for her polish but for what feels like its opposite, a swervy, drolly impulsive style of speech that keeps surprising you mid-sentence—mid-word!—with shifts in rhythm and emphasis. its a good match for her tale—a grownup daughter recalling the once-famous Irish actress who was her mother—which follows no pat arc of a life but is deliciously full of sentence-by-sentence observations and odd bits of fully lived life, mostly in 1970s Dublin. A treat.”
— Tom • Phinney Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Anne Enright is one of our most masterful writers working today. Every sentence is an absolute treat. Her jam is family secrets and the silence surrounding them (remember The Gathering?) and this story is no different. You will love Katherine ODell, the larger than life actress at the heart of the story, and her daughter, the narrator, who is devoted to her. It's a beautiful story, with such keen wisdom and thoughtfulness. *insert like 10 heart emojis*”
— Stefanie • Water Street Bookstore

Summary

A brilliant and moving novel about celebrity, sexual power, and a daughter’s search to understand hermother’s hidden truths.Katherine O’Dell is an Irish theater legend. As her daughter, Norah, retraces her mother’s celebrated career andbohemian life, she delves into long-kept secrets, both her mother’s and her own. Katherine began her career onIreland’s bus-and-truck circuit before making it to London’s West End, Broadway, and finally Hollywood. Everymoment of her life is a performance, with young Norah standing in the wings. But the mother-daughter romancecannot survive Katherine’s past or the world’s damage. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, Katherine’s grip onreality 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 hermother’s 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 searches—for her father’s identity; for her mother’s motive indonning 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 find—their powers of recovery, Actress touches a raw and timely nerve. With virtuosic storytelling and inprose at turns lyrical and knife-sharp, Anne Enright takes readers to the heart of the maddening yet tender love thatbinds a mother and daughter.

Fiction Fiction - Literary