A LIBRARYREADS PICK AND BEST BOOK CLUB PICK OF 2023

"A writer of astonishing grace, delicacy, and feeling."—Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

"A beautiful, haunting book."—Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

The beloved bestselling

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In 1927, George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. However, the advent of the talkies will kill his career and he will sink into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky's the limit as major movie stardom awaits. Though their careers are taking different paths their destinies will become entwined.

When his boss demands more speed and efficiency, Chaplin goes crazy from his repetitious assembly line job. Primarily a silent film with music and sound effects, but occasional voices emanate from radios and television screens.

An unimpressive but well intending man is given the chance to marry a popular actress, of whom he has been a hopeless fan. But what he doesn't realize is that he is being used to make the actress' old flame jealous.

"Posing as Lord and Lady Stonehill, two diamond thieves hold up the main offices of a South African diamond mine and make off with a fortune in uncut stones, taking with them mine manager Hugh Rand as a hostage. The thieves attempt to make an escape across the desert and become lost in the hot and trackless wastes. They release Hugh from his shackles, and he leads them to safety. The girl reforms, and the man is arrested by the authorities. Hugh and...

The most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street and mistakes him for a millionaire. Though this Depression-era smash was made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive...

Peggy Pepper, a Georgia girl who wants to be a dramatic actress, goes to Hollywood and at first can find work only as a patsy for Billy Boone in slapstick comedies. Billy, however, soon helps Peggy to become both a serious actress and a star. Fame and wealth go to Peggy's head; she becomes vain and snubs Billy in favor of André, her romantic leading man. Peggy eventually comes down to earth, however, and acknowledges her love for the patient Billy....

Four separate stories are interwoven: the fall of Babylon, the death of Christ, the massacre of the Huguenots and a contemporary drama, all crosscut and building with enormous energy to a thrilling chase and finale.

"Patsy Harrington [is] the drudge of her social-climbing family. Secretly in love with Tony Anderson, the boyfriend of her irresponsible but irresistible sister Grace, Patsy yearns to be a 'personality girl.' Rather than cultivate her looks, she decides to become the 'intellectual' of her family, which outrages her mother who believes that beauty and brains don't mix. Meanwhile, the fickle Grace begins cheating on Tony with a millionaire named Bill....