Anne-Marie the Beauty

Praise

“Anne-Marie … [shares] her view of life as a great arc in this brief yet richly symbolic, humorous, and poignant tale.”
—Booklist

:A little gem on the wiles of memory and the doggedness of time.”
—Eimear McBride

“Gossipy, confiding, frequently hilarious, Reza has sketched a rich portrait of an ageing actress looking back on her ‘near miss’ of a life,  its small triumphs and petty jealousies, her not quite stellar career, her love-hate relationship with the more famous Gigi Fayolle, her parent’s unhappy marriage, her dull provincial origins, her dislike of her own son. Come for the scorching one-liners, whispered sotto voce, as if the reader were an intimate, but stay for the bittersweet meditations on ageing, anxiety and life’s inevitable disappointment.” 
—Marina Benjamin, author of Insomnia

“This short monologue by award-winning novelist and playwright Reza follows the life and career of Anne-Marie. Having grown up in Saint-Sourd-en-Ger, France, a mecca for actors, Anne-Marie catches the acting bug and at age 19 travels to Paris to audition. There she meets the famous actress Giselle Fayolle, who becomes a source of influence and fascination. Moving back and forth in time, Anne-Marie relives her many roles on the stage and laments the ones that passed her by. In describing her family, she says her husband is boring and organized, but in a good way, and that her son will no doubt buy the cheapest urn when she dies. She wonders if her titanium knee joint will be cremated with her. As she ages and moves toward the end of her life, she concludes, “You start out as little people, and you’re little people in the end.” Anne-Marie often refers to herself in the third person, as if she is someone else.
VERDICT Reza triumphantly creates a nuanced and powerful portrait of aging that will resonate with ambitious readers.”

—Library Journal
“Alison L. Strayer’s deft translation captures Anne-Marie’s tone, which is no mean feat in a text so abundant with idioms, idiosyncrasies, and poignant comedy. Anne-Marie the Beauty is a hymn to the unknowns: to those who have lived, loved, and worked outside of fame and recognition. . . . This is a work that forces you to ask the question of every name you hear: “Who are they? Who are they really?”
—Sarah Moore, Asymptote Journal


“This novel reminds us that dreams are sometimes more precious than the real thing.”
—Kira Josefsson, Vulture