Retired film star Evelyn Hugo chooses journalist Monique Grant to record her life. The seven marriages that shaped Evelyn’s public image frame a much less orderly private history. Monique gradually discovers that the interview is not simply an opportunity to write a celebrity biography.

A life larger than its headlines

Evelyn describes the bargains and performances that helped her survive Hollywood. Marriage can be a relationship, a shield, or a career decision. The novel separates the story an industry sells from the needs of the person living inside it.

Ambition does not cancel vulnerability

Love, friendship, sexuality, grief, and self-protection complicate Evelyn’s carefully maintained persona. Her choices can be understandable without being harmless. The book resists making either success or suffering a complete explanation of character.

A question to carry away

Who controls the final account of a life? Monique must decide what to do with a story that gives her power while changing her understanding of its teller.

Official book information ↗