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Actress
- Narrated by: Anne Enright
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
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Actress
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Publisher's Summary
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
From the Booker-winning Irish author, a brilliant and moving novel about fame, sexual power and a daughter’s search to understand her mother’s hidden truths.
This is the story of Irish theatre legend Katherine O’Dell, as told by her daughter Norah. It tells of early stardom in Hollywood, of highs and lows on the stages of Dublin and London’s West End. Katherine’s life is a grand performance, with young Norah watching from the wings.
But this romance between mother and daughter cannot survive Katherine’s past, or the world’s damage. As Norah uncovers her mother’s secrets, she acquires a few of her own. Then, fame turns to infamy when Katherine decides to commit a bizarre crime.
Actress is about a daughter’s search for the truth: the dark secret in the bright star, and what drove Katherine finally mad.
Brilliantly capturing the glamour of post-war America and the shabbiness of 1970s Dublin, Actress is an intensely moving, disturbing novel about mothers and daughters and the men in their lives. A scintillating examination of the corrosive nature of celebrity, it is also a sad and triumphant tale of freedom from bad love, and from the avid gaze of the crowd.
Critic Reviews
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. (Ruth Scurr)
What listeners say about Actress
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kate
- 16-09-2020
Anne Enright does it again.
loved it. fierce. tender. beautifully told. a mighty story of fame and ordinariness. of deep trauma and compassion.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 17-10-2024
So beautiful and engrossing
I have both the physical book and the audio reading, and found myself coming back to this audible version, which is so beautifully read by the author
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tracy Henderson
- 10-03-2020
Sublime!
The characters are so authentically created that the story seems to blur the lines between biography and fiction. So much rich and nuanced detail that I am in awe of the imagination and skilful writing that drew me into their world and made me forget that this was make believe. Add Anne Enright’s fantastic narration and I think it is one of the best audiobook experiences I’ve had in a while. This is being added to my list of Favourite Books right now!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 31-01-2024
The narration!
I love the way she describes things so honestly and creatively. Got a bit bogged down in some of the actress / what she was in etc details - on the US. Great characters though.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hobart Hughes
- 08-04-2020
A mind set to language
It's just that you don't know where the line, the boarder, the transition between the uniqueness of the insight and the sheer delight of the words used is and it strikes me as so unsettlingly beautiful to not know. Some truly remarkable sentences rendering observations profound in how the author positions one to see the consciousness of a person. I want to go and read it now so I can see how the words look on the page.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Pete Shields
- 25-05-2020
Mother protector
Very sad. But honestly written with an irish charm and worldly appraisal that all can relate to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kerry Kilner
- 18-12-2020
Powerful and intriguing
A very impressive novel, yet again, by Anne Enright. A masterful storyteller. Complex, wonderful characters.
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