First published 2022
Maria Lagana fled Rome after her father's arrest destroyed their family. Now she works as an associate producer at Mercury Pictures in 1940s Los Angeles, where her mother refuses to speak to her and her Chinese-American boyfriend faces constant typecasting. The studio struggles with bankruptcy while congressional investigators circle her boss. As America enters World War II, Mercury Pictures fills with European refugees. Former architects build miniature sets. Celebrated poets write B-movie scripts. Refugee actors portray the fascist villains they escaped. Maria navigates studio politics and divided loyalties as Los Angeles dims its lights against air raids. Then a stranger arrives who knew her father in Rome. This visitor threatens to expose the secrets Maria has buried about her past and her father's fate. She must choose between the carefully built life that shelters her and the truth she has spent fifteen years avoiding.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, secrets
Setting: Rome, Los Angeles
Period: 1940s
416 pages · Hardcover · Hogarth
Content warnings: war