This book was hard to get into at first. It took a while to get used to the writing but once I did the story was one worth reading. I thought it was a beautiful story and I am glad that I stuck it out. I've not read about the film industry during the war before so this was an interesting take for me. I enjoyed what I learned and think the author did a wonderful job with the settings, characters and descriptions.

I adored this book , I need a movie version ! The writing is excellent , it’s smart, it’s funny, it’s emotional, it’s just so many things I want from a book . There are also an array of minor characters with their own stories which add more to the novel . The story is immersive and addictive and it’s historical fiction at its best .

This book was exciting and inspiring in equal measure! I loved how the author brought old Hollywood to life while celebrating voices in the business that are not often heard. Thank you for the ARC!

If you love movies, you will love this book. It’s full of romance and wit and brings Hollywood to life in a vivid way that stayed with me long after I finished reading. Highly recommended.

📚BOOK REVIEW 📚
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Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra is set as America enters World War II. However, what makes this historical fiction novel so different is that it is set in Hollywood, where the impact of war in this glamourous business are revealed.
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Maria Lagana works as an Associate Producer at Mercury Pictures, and we see how her work and her personal life is shaped by the world’s devastating events. An immigrant herself from Rome following her father’s imprisonment under Mussolini for anti fascism, Maria finds her workplace made up of political refugees who are finding themselves treated as ‘enemy aliens’. The importance of movies and the power of the arts is highlighted as we see the propaganda and what the big screen can ignite and portray.

This only touches the surface of the plot of this book, it has so much going on I must admit I did struggle to keep up at times! The rich and diverse characters are absolutely divine however, and we get to explore their backstories; how they came to be in America, who they left behind – the effects of the war on everyone are constantly exposed. I found this absolutely fascinating but it did leave me lost on the plot when it meandered into these different histories.

I found this a very witty read, the big characters really came alive (Artie the studio boss was just hilarious) and I could absolutely picture this as a movie itself.

If you are interested in ‘old Hollywood’ and an historical fiction fan then this is for you!

I'm genuinely unsure what Marra is trying to do here. The blurb suggests a serious look at the impact of world war on the many immigrants who have made their home in America and their career in the movies. But the tone is relentlessly light-hearted, jokey, and every sentence is an overworked masterpiece of style over substance. Tragedies that are dealt with untragically, people mixed up in serious events who deal with them with a clever quip and a resort to farce. How can I care about or sympathise with a man who takes his mistress along on a cruise designed to patch up his marriage? I can only laugh, as I am clearly supposed to do, but at him, not with him.

The tone reminds me very much of Amor Towles, another author who I feel deals with weighty subjects with too light a style, making the serious seem superficial. So maybe it's an American style that, as a Brit, I'm simply not in tune with. In both cases, it seems to me they trivialise their subject matter. Why not pick a trivial subject and then one can be as quippy as one likes without it jarring? But pick wars, dictatorships, revolutions, and genocide, and somehow the jokes don't work for me.

Abandoned at 20%.

I clearly didn‘t read the blurb on this one as I expected it to be a slightly fluffy look at Hollywood film-making but it‘s nothing of the sort.

Maria immigrates to the US just before WWII and we see her back story, and her life as she becomes an enemy alien on US soil.

This was very cleverly written, weaving in the stories of other ‘outcasts‘ into a drily witty tale.

I really like stories about the movie industry, and stuff set in World War Two and this is both of those - split between Mussolini’s Italy and California, it looks at the immigrant experience in America in war time and the risks that people will take to survive and the sacrifices people will make for the people they love. If you've read non-fiction (or fiction) about the studio system or the Hollywood blacklist, this might well be of interest to you.

I was expecting the book to be focused on the movie industry. I couldn’t finish this book. The characterisation and writing needs to be edited. There too much passive dialogue and several characters. The story flits around too much.

A disappointing novel that lacks any hook to make me want to continue reading. Authors, I have a lot of books to get to, some of them are incredible, you need to tell me why I care about your characters, otherwise the events of the novel are random and pointless.

DNFed this novel about a quarter of the way in, thank you for the chance to read it early, sorry I didn't enjoy it.

This book had something to do with movies, Italy and immigration.

I really don't want to star rate this book, I've given it a 1, that's probably unfair.

Due to its whimsical writing style, which could be both surprisingly insightful and effortlessly funny, it was impossible not to become invested in the interlinked lives of the novel’s wide cast of characters.

Would I recommend?… Yes, I need to see this as a movie!

Mecury Pictures Presents is a captivating read, following the life of Maria Lagana which starts with her childhood in Rome and later moves to Hollywood as her and her mother escape Fascisn in Italy fter her father is confined for being a political activist. You are introduced to a wealth of characters, all with their own story to tell - each as interesting as Marias.

A great read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Mercury Pictures Presents.

Not a book for me, I'm afraid. Although I enjoyed Maria's backstory when the narrative moved from her point of view it no longer held me and I wasn't sure where the story was going.

My thanks to John Murray Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Mercury Pictures Presents’ by Anthony Marra.

What a fascinating novel this was. It is quite rightly described as an epic, focusing upon Hollywood during the 1930s-40s and its response to the influx of European émigrés before the USA’s entry into World War II. The plot continues through the war and reflects how the film industry contributed to how the war was perceived as well as the shifting political climate.

This novel has a large cast of characters and required a close reading to keep track. The lead is Maria Lagana, who had been born in Rome and immigrated to the USA with her mother following her father’s arrest. She came to Hollywood in order to leave her past behind.

Maria currently is an assistant producer at Mercury Studios, though like many women in the industry she finds that her contributions are being sidelined in favour of her male colleagues. With the studio on the brink of bankruptcy new strategies are needed. Then the arrival of a stranger from her father's past threatens Maria's carefully constructed world.

In ‘Mercury Pictures Presents’ Anthony Marra weaves a fascinating portrait of Old Hollywood. On occasion the narrative returns to Italy though I found myself less interested in these interludes compared to those sections set in Los Angeles.

In his end Credits, Marra cites the real world inspirations for his novel and discusses those publications that assisted in his research into Hollywood and the film industry during this period of the 20th Century.

Overall, I enjoyed this very much and applaud its well realised characterisations, engaging plot, and atmospheric historical setting.

4.5 rounded up to 5.

3.5* upped to 4
It's the first book I read by this author and I found it intriguing even if a bit confused at times.
The life of people who run away from Europe during WWII, people in exile who risked being considered the enemy, the impact of the war.
There's a lot in this book, it's a good historical fiction but I wasn't a fan of Maria
It's well plotted and it flows
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I have been carefully avoiding the recent rash of WWII novels but I couldn't resist Anthony Marra and was very glad I hadn't.
The story is set against a background of WWII, partly in a labour camp for dissidents in Italy but mostly among the foreign nationals and immigrants, mostly refugees from Europe, working at a Hollywood studio.
Italy under Il Duce becomes an impossible place to live when Maria’s father is sent to the dissident camp so her mother packs their bags and they immigrate to live with family in California.
As an adult Maria works for a film studio where she meets many European refugees trying to sell their skills to make a living while suffering discrimination and often under suspicion as ‘enemy aliens’.
Marra captures the false glamour and double-dealing of the Hollywood producers with a humor that does not belie the precarious political situation. He deals with the range of bigotry and discrimination experienced by the diverse cast of characters encountered in the studio and educates without preaching, developing in the reader a deep-feeling concern for his characters’ fates.
The story develops slowly and there isn't a lot of plot but the author's wonderful descriptions bring this world to life. His characters are treated lovingly, they are flawed but caring – the villains are off-stage – and, despite conflicting emotions, try to help one another. Not everyone has a happy conclusion but alongside the sadness you are left with a connection to and understanding of these people.

Highly recommended.

The title and cover were my pull towards this book. 1940s Los Angeles setting really appealled to me. I'd not read this author before. I can totally understand why it has received such high praise and high star reviews. But sadly I struggled with it, as beautiful as the writing is I found it drawn out and I'm afraid I got bored.

4 ½ stars

This is one of my FAVORITE authors for many reasons. All his books have moments that take your breath away. Be it the writing, the dark humor or his keen observations on human nature. His writing is always a feast to experience.

All these elements were present in his latest book about the film industry during WW2. The story highlights the absurdity of war through a constellation of connected characters.

I did miss the Russian setting from his previous books just a tiny but and had I not has so much work pressure I would have read this faster.

Highly recommended.

A look at the credits to this novel, show the amount of work that Anthony Marra has put into this work, it must have taken him years to write.
It is complex yet simple.
I am not particularly interested in the coming and goings of the Hollywood film industry, partly because I imagine it being just like the description in this novel.
The interplay between Italy, Germany and California and indeed the interplay with Italian, German, American and other nationals such as the Chinese are all covered excellently within these pages.

The book is part Who-done-it part fictional history, part cheesy Hollywood storyline.
The characters are excellent.
I am not usually keen on seeing books made into films, for me books are usually a more impressive genre than films, but if they ever make a Hollywood movie out of this it will be a classic, and an epic.
Fantastic job Anthony. Well done!

My thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy for honest review.

A joy to read. I spread out reading it over several days because i can only read it with fresh eyes once. The writer is great at storytelling and world building. I would read any spin off novels of the other characters in the novel because I wanted to know more about them. I did not know who the author was before starting this book, but now I want to read his back catalogue and will look out for his future work.