WIN: An advanced reading copy of The Electric Hotel, a luminous novel tracing the intertwined fates of a silent film director and his muse.
To enter, tell us your favourite old Hollywood movie and why?
https://www.facebook.com/AllenandUnwinBooks/videos/830337293991577/From the award-winning author of the acclaimed bestseller The Last
Painting of Sara de Vos.
'Utterly absorbing, astonishingly inventive, and richly imagined. Dominic Smith is a wizard.' Andrea Barrett, National Book Award Winner and author of Archangel
“In 1962, cinematographer Claude Ballard is rusticating with the other eccentric, washed-up denizens of Hollywood’s Knickerbocker Hotel. When a doctoral candidate arrives to interview him, Claude’s past begins to unspool, and Smith (The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, 2016) shifts the focus to the nascent film industry at the turn of the century. On the Hudson Palisades, a ragtag bunch of innovators—Claude, aging French stage actress Sabine Montrose (clearly modeled on Sarah Bernhardt), an Australian stunt man, and a Brooklyn entrepreneur—creates a silent film masterpiece, The Electric Hotel. Success is within their grasp when archvillain Thomas Edison lets loose his copyright lawyers. The atmosphere is convincing as Smith transports readers to fin de siècle New Jersey, the sick room of a tubercular widow, and Belgium in the throes of WWI. The depth and breadth of the characterization is truly impressive, the story line immersive, and the prose richly evocative as the novel ranges from tragic to nail-biting to hilarious. Smith’s tale is as luminous as celluloid projected on a silver screen hung from a dirigible floating over the Hudson (yes, this happens). Highly recommended for historical fiction fans and readers who love old Hollywood novels.” Booklist (starred review)
A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man's doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.
Competition open to Aus/NZ residents only, entries close 10am AEDT Monday 20 May 2019, ten copies to giveaway across Facebook & Instagram with winners announced in comments.
Australian Competitions Club
