A brilliant and moving novel about celebrity, sexual power, and a daughterâs search to understand her
motherâs hidden truths.
Katherine OâDell is an Irish theater legend. As her daughter, Norah, retraces her motherâs celebrated career and
bohemian life, she delves into long-kept secrets, both her motherâs and her own. Katherine began her career on
Irelandâs bus-and-truck circuit before making it to Londonâs West End, Broadway, and finally Hollywood. Every
moment of her life is a performance, with young Norah standing in the wings. But the mother-daughter romance
cannot survive Katherineâs past or the worldâs damage. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, Katherineâs grip on
reality grows fitful. Fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a bizarre crime.
As Norahâs role gradually changes to Katherineâs protector, caregiver, and finally legacy-keeper, she revisits her
motherâs 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 searchesâfor her fatherâs identity; for her motherâs motive in
donning 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 findingâ
or failing to findâtheir powers of recovery, Actress touches a raw and timely nerve. With virtuosic storytelling and in
prose at turns lyrical and knife-sharp, Anne Enright takes readers to the heart of the maddening yet tender love that
binds a mother and daughter.