Early Praise for The Original
“Historical fiction fans will be drawn to this immersive portrait of the legendary actor.”— Publishers Weekly
"(A) vivid fictionalization... With silky finesse, perceptive insight, and genuine affinity, Parmar empathically recreates the magical, mythical world of 1930s Hollywood, embracing what’s known and interpreting what can only be imagined about the lives of two people who epitomized epic stardom." — Booklist STARRED review
“A bold, breathtaking novel about the making of Katharine Hepburn—vivid, daring and full of emotional bite. This is a novel you press into your best friend’s hands the moment you finish. Priya Parmar is a true original, and this novel proves it.”— Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of Skylark
“A riveting and unputdownable journey through fame, rebellion, and the relentless pursuit of authenticity. Priya Parmar has written a novel that lingers in the mind and heart, as thought-provoking as it is beautiful.”— Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of The Foursome
"The magnificent Priya Parmar has written an unforgettable novel about a beloved American icon. The Original, is an imaginative and daring leap into the Golden Age of Hollywood star machine. Lights! Camera! Read!" — Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The View From Lake Como
"A brilliant, ambitious woman determined to live--and love--on her on terms in an era where bold and unconventional choices could destroy a career overnight. Fans of early Hollywood will devour this novel." — Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Women
“A luminous, fiercely intimate portrait of a fascinating and enigmatic legend carving her own path. Parmar's prose is poetic, electric, and deeply affecting.” — John Searles, New York Times bestselling author of Single Girls
“I read the Original with real delight—Priya Parmar’s complex evocation of Hepburn’s youth and early career, of the woman behind the icon, is tender, fierce, and beautiful. What a terrific novel!”— Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of This Strange Eventful History
This stunning novel plunges into the tumultuous life of screen icon Katharine Hepburn, a star whose fierce independence, passionate spirit, and fluid sexuality shattered Hollywood’s rules and redefined what it meant to be a woman in film.
When young Katharine Hepburn loses her beloved brother, she makes two decisions: she will become famous, and she will never let anyone hurt her again. Leaving home to pursue an acting career, Kate is lured to Hollywood, accompanied by her lover, Laura.
Los Angeles in the early 1930s is a town full of secrets. Everyone comes with a story. Soon, she is scooped into the studio system and launched as a star—but stars must play by the rules and Kate, brilliant, bisexual, and fiercely independent, refuses to conform.
Surrounded by a legendary circle of intimates, including the powerful David and Irene Selznick, charming and romantically conflicted actor Cary Grant, ambitious director John Ford, and millionaire tycoon Howard Hughes, Kate navigates a web of sex, ambition, loyalty, and betrayal. As Kate’s career ascends, she faces an agonizing choice: be the star everyone wants her to be, or risk everything to become the woman she always was.
The author of New York Times Notable Book Vanessa and Her Sister has created a propulsive, emotionally charged novel exploring the cost of fame. With sharp prose and unforgettable characters, The Original is a story of love, aspiration, and the price of living authentically.
A New York Times Notable Book * Indie Next Pick *
A Best Book Pick in:
Oprah Magazine * Vanity Fair * Christian Science Monitor * People * Elle Magazine * Us Weekly * Good Housekeeping * Entertainment Weekly *
Praise for Vanessa and Her Sister
“Fiction and history merge seamlessly in this dazzling novel.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Being related to Virginia Woolf can’t have been easy. In this delightful novel, [Priya] Parmar re-imagines the brilliant, fragile writer and her turn-of-the-century bohemian friends, the famous Bloomsbury set, through the eyes of her painter sister Vanessa. . . . You’ll be spellbound.”—People
“Rarely do you encounter a woman who commands as much admiration as does the painter Vanessa Bell in Priya Parmar’s multilayered, subtly shaded novel. . . . Parmar’s fabricated journal is an uncanny success. Its entries, plausible and graceful, are imbued with the same voice that can be found in letters by or about Vanessa. . . . Parmar gives truth and definition to the character of a woman whose nature was as elusive as her influence was profound. She has caught the phantom.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Parmar inhabits the gilded ‘bohemian hinterland’ of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa, creating a vibrant fictional homage.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“In her gossipy, entertaining historical novel about the British bohemians, Priya Parmar conjures a devastating fictional portrait of one of those triangles – the great writer Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own, To the Lighthouse); her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell; and Vanessa's husband, art critic Clive Bell...Parmar's perceptive and well-informed fill-in-the-blanks approach — and her elegant, accessible style — makes for some tasty, frothy Bloomsbury pie, indeed.”
—USA Today
“Vanessa and Her Sister illuminates Virginia Woolf’s backstory from a striking perspective…Parmar has captured a thrilling, terrifying feeling of infinite possibility, reimagining an intimate time when these future icons are still “living on the borrowed fuel of potential and so far have not left deep footprints,” as the 26-year-old Vanessa muses early in the novel.”
— ELLE
“Captivating from beginning to end.”
— Vogue
“graceful, captivating”
— Newsday
“a vibrant fictional homage.”
— O: The Oprah Magazine
“Somewhere between Downton Abbey and Keeping Up With the Kardashians, this provides enough scandal and family drama to keep the pages turning”
— Harper's Bazaar
"You'll get lost in the worlds of Vanessa Bell and her sister, Virginia Woolf, as they struggle to make it as a painter and an author, respectively, in prewar London—but more so than art, this is a story of sisterhood."— Glamour Magazine
“Inventive, meticulously researched … the author’s greatest triumph is giving voice to the steady, loyal, motherly Vanessa, who lived nobly in her sister’s shadow, only to experience heartbreaking betrayal.”
— Good Housekeeping
“This novel about sisters of Bloomsbury is a twofer: Read it for the story; literary history is a bonus.”
— AARP Bulletin
“TMZ would have loved the Bloomsbury Group… an elegant, entertaining novel that brings new life to the Bloomsbury Group’s intrigues.”
—Dallas Morning News
“If you’re at all interested in Virginia Woolf, or just a fan of a good piece of historical fiction, in the vein of The Paris Wife, this book’s the one for you.”
— Bustle.com
“The plot — as pretzeled as Bloomsbury’s round-robin of love affairs—unfolds at the steady pace of time, in crisp period prose, and rarely feels inevitable.”
— Vulture.com
“Parmar does a stellar job conveying Virginia’s complicated, almost incestuous feelings for Vanessa…The author also deftly brings to life the various artists and writers who formed the nascent Bloomsbury group…Parmar’s narrative is riveting and successfully takes on the task of turning larger-than-life figures into real people…[she] weaves their stories together so effortlessly that nothing seems out of place.'
— Publishers Weekly (Starred review)
“A devoted, emotionally intense portrait of the Bloomsbury group … Parmar enters it with passion and precision.”
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)
“The book's strength lies in the well-written relationship between Vanessa and Virginia, sure to appeal to fans of Michael Cunningham's The Hours.”
— Library Journal
“Captivating . . . a subtle exploration of the sisters’ complicated emotional life . . . Through letters and Vanessa’s journal entries, [Parmar] captures the excitement of social experimentation.”—BBC
“You don't need a deep knowledge of the Bloomsbury group to appreciate this novel but, if you're a hardcore Bloomsbury addict (like me), it's one of the essential reads of the year … It's biography as fiction, imagined with almost supernatural brilliance. Bliss”
— The Times (UK)
"In this impressive novel, everyone is afraid of Virginia Woolf… Vanessa and Her Sister is a remarkable achievement, all the more so for being only Parmar’s second novel. She has had the blessing of Vanessa Bell’s granddaughter and daughter-in-law, and her research has clearly been meticulous. But it’s the central portrait of Vanessa’s emotional life and her journey to a more disillusioned, if pragmatic, self-knowledge, that makes this novel, with its familiar setting, so fresh and compelling."
— The Guardian (UK)
“Immerse yourself in this joyously imagined novel … Superbly controlled and structured, the novel contains a central irony: 'Vanessa' writes like an angel. Bravo” – Daily Mail
“Her imagined “diaries” of Vanessa Bell, from 1905 to 1911, are a triumph from first to last. She gets the authorial voice spot-on and skewers Virginia Woolf, Vanessa's sister, in all her ridiculous hauteur”
— Mail on Sunday (UK)
“I romped through this novel and longed for more … Edwardian London, from Fortnum's Dundee cake to the first post-impressionist exhibition, comes to life. Roll on a sequel”
— The Economist's Intelligent Life
“Compellingly involving, it captures with a light touch the hothouse emotionalism of Bloomsbury's tangled relationships … Overwhelmingly, however, this is pitch perfect: sensitively handled, unsensational and persuasive”
— Country Life (UK)
“Priya Parmar is on a high-wire act all her own in this radiantly original novel about the Bloomsbury Set. Irrepressible, with charm and brio to spare, Vanessa and Her Sister boldly invites us to that moment in history when famous minds sparked and collided. Prepare to be dazzled.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
“Vanessa and Her Sister is an account of my grandmother’s early life, told with faith, elegance, and an almost uncanny insight into the subject. But this is also an absorbing work of fiction—and Priya Parmar has made Vanessa’s story her own.”—Virginia Nicholson, Vanessa Bell’s granddaughter and author of Among the Bohemians
Nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Original Musical
This revolutionary story celebrates the life of Sylvia Pankhurst – feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist, rebel – the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement, who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.
