Lucky Break

British novelist Esther Freud (Hideous Kinky) turns her unflinching (but not uncaring) gaze on the life of the young actor -- with all its vanity and passion, lofty dreams and crushing blows. The author's talent is such that you'll care more about her three main characters, who meet as drama students and find varying levels of success, than you ever thought possible.

June 19: On this day in 1816, the Shelleys, Lord Byron, and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to tell the ghost stories that would trigger Frankenstein. This most legendary of storm-tossed evenings inspired…

Very few debut novels exhibit the charm, assurance, emotional depth and bravura fabulation which the lucky reader will discover in Helene Wecker's

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