The Life and Death of Sophie Stark
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'If The Girl on the Train was the woman of 2015, then Sophie Stark is this year's model. Anna North's novel, The Life and Death of Sophie Stark, has been a hit in America, with Lena Dunham describing its protagonist as a "totally unforgettable female antihero". Out now - soon every girl on every train will be reading it' Sunday Times
Who is the real Sophie Stark?
The Life and Death of Sophie Stark is the story of an enigmatic film director, told by the six people who loved her most. Brilliant, infuriating, all-seeing and unknowable, Sophie Stark makes films said to be 'more like life than life itself'. But her genius comes at a terrible cost: to her husband, to the brother she left behind, and to an actress who knows too much.
With shades of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, A Visit from the Goon Squad and Where'd You Go, Bernadette, it combines a uniquely appealing sensibility with a compulsively page-turning plot.
'Thriller-paced, with mysteries revealed at every turn. The great mystery at the centre is Sophie Stark, a totally unforgettable female anti-hero who conforms to absolutely none of our expectations and suffers deeply for it' Lena Dunham
'North is a natural, butter-smooth storyteller' Maggie Shipstead, author of SEATING ARRANGEMENTS
'I read THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SOPHIE STARK with my heart in my mouth. Not only a dissection of genius and the havoc it can wreak, but also a thunderously good story' Emma Donoghue, author of ROME
'Jennifer Egan, eat your heart out' Sam Baker
'A captivating portrait of the artist as a young woman. It's a story that examines the notion of artistic legacy and meditates on the ethics involved in film-making and storytelling' THE INDEPENDENT
'Gripping and graceful' THE GUARDIAN
'The year's must read' GLAMOUR
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The ending of North's (America Pacifica) provocative new novel is a foregone conclusion; it is the journey there, revealed by the intimates in Sophie Stark's life, that draws the reader in. The difficult and tenacious filmmaker Sophie inhabits the same world as the rest of us, but she doesn't really live in it. Her intensity informs her filmmaking, which in turn conveys her vision and emotions. A by-product of her hyperfocus is that she manipulates people to achieve her art. Those in her orbit come to understand this too late to have a happy relationship with her. As such, the book's narrators among them a college basketball player, a musician, and a movie producer disappear and reappear years later, interrupting the narrative flow. Mitigating that flaw is the character of a film critic, whose writings about Sophie's films are a constant for the reader. The other constant is Sophie's talent. Though derived from her existence as an outsider, it is the vehicle that allows her to bring an uncanny emotional depth to her work. North's nuanced prose and emphasis on characterization result in a thoughtful, moving read that explores the creative process and its effects on relationships.
