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Start giftingThe Hollywood Daughter
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Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Scrolling through my e-reader after my fifth viewing of La La Land, not quite ready to leave that world, it’s no surprise that this book piqued my interest. I thoroughly enjoyed this 1950s-set novel about a teenage girl caught between her mother’s strict Catholicism and the glamorous world of the Hollywood world where her father works, where she meets Ingrid Bergman, and which is under scrutiny by Congress. It held the attention of my jet-lag-fogged brain when I was traveling—no mean feat.”
— Claire • East City Bookshop
Summary
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker and A Touch of Stardust, comes a Hollywood coming-of-age novel, in which Ingrid Bergman's affair with Roberto Rossellini forces her biggest fan to reconsider everything she was raised to believe
In 1950, Ingrid Bergman—already a major star after movies like Casablanca and Joan of Arc—has a baby out of wedlock with her Italian lover, film director Roberto Rossellini. Previously held up as an icon of purity, Bergman's fall shocked her legions of American fans.
Growing up in Hollywood, Jessica Malloy watches as her PR executive father helps make Ingrid a star at Selznick Studio. Over years of fleeting interactions with the actress, Jesse comes to idolize Ingrid, who she considered not only the epitome of elegance and integrity, but also the picture-perfect mother, an area where her own difficult mom falls short.
In a heated era of McCarthyism and extreme censorship, Ingrid's affair sets off an international scandal that robs seventeen-year-old Jesse of her childhood hero. When the stress placed on Jesse's father begins to reveal hidden truths about the Malloy family, Jesse's eyes are opened to the complex realities of life—and love.
Beautifully written and deeply moving, The Hollywood Daughter is an intimate novel of self-discovery that evokes a Hollywood sparkling with glamour and vivid drama.
Reviews
"A vivid portrait of the turbulent times and the heartbreak of real people underneath all the glamour of 1940s Hollywood. Young Jesse Malloy is a compelling guide to the era and her connection to the beautiful Ingrid Bergman forms an integral part of Jesse's search for the truth about her own childhood. Brimming with all the sparkle of old Hollywood and all the heart and honesty of a true coming-of-age story."--Helen Simonson, New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Before the War
"The Hollywood Daughter comes at a perfect time to remind us of what happens when conspiracy theorists and authoritarians are loosed upon the land...Jessica Malloy is a worthy heroine for our era. Kate Alcott reminds us that the real damage to home and homeland comes from fearmongering and divisive politics."
--Washington Post
“The Ingrid Bergman that Alcott creates is more human and flawed than the celebrity we know from the movies…The Hollywood Daughter is at first loaded with nostalgia…But the novel slowly unravels this idealistic image to show the danger of conformity and the overwhelming pressure to do what is expected in a culture where aberration is not tolerated…[The novel] feels particularly resonant today.”
--Kansas City Star
"Kate Alcott crafts an engrossing coming of age tale that cleverly portrays both the seductive glamour and moral hypocrisy of 1940's Hollywood. Told through the eyes of an idealistic young heroine whose own loyalties are divided, the story of Ingrid Bergman's very public rise and fall from grace deftly mirrors the changing female identity of a nation and offers timely reminders on the dangers of censorship, intolerance, and institutionalized sexism."
--Kathleen Tessaro, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector
"I was swept along by this story; Kate Alcott has crafted a masterpiece with this novel, writing with grace and lyricism about the golden age of Hollywood and a young girl living on the periphery of a glittering world. Alcott manages to keep Ingrid Bergman just ethereal enough to maintain the allure the starlet was known for, while bringing Bergman's human longings to the surface. It is a breathtakingly tender exploration of faith, fame, growing up and letting go."
--Victoria Kelly, author of Mrs. Houdini
"Alcott tells another tremendously appealing story with great skill and insight, extending her reign as a top popular historical novelist.”
--Booklist
“[An] affecting coming of age novel...Alcott effectively uses Bergman’s 1950 fall from grace, seen through Jessica’s eyes... drawing in readers from the start with smooth writing. Her storytelling skillfully taps into Jessica’s black-and-white adolescent worldview and the distance she maintains from others as an adult, making both real—and surprisingly emotional.”
--Publishers Weekly Expand reviews