Starlet

A sweeping debut novel illuminating the inner life of Merle Oberon, an Old Hollywood actress who made history while safeguarding a necessary secret Slim, dark-haired, nineteen. The year is 1929 and Estelle Thompson pores over magazines inspecting the local beauties in Bombay who look nothing like her. She spends her days working as the suggestive limerick girl at a jazz club. Estelle is lounging at her favorite café when she meets Patrick, a young English soldier who shares her love of the movies. She accepts his invitation to see the latest film; long walks and dances morph into a perfect whirlwind romance, almost as if Estelle were in a movie. There is talk of rings, a life together. But when Estelle reveals her most guarded secret, she is left with nothing to lose. Accompanied by her mother, she sails to France, then England, where she is reinvented as the elusive Merle Oberon. Long days under studio lights cement Merle’s place as a household name. She is a starlet, rubbing shoulders with the stars of the day. But Estelle, now Merle, finds herself anchorless in the world of glitz and glamour, continuing a necessary façade long after the director yells cut. Searing, delightfully atmospheric, and wholly mesmerizing, Starlet is impossible to forget.