Mercury Pictures Presents is wonderfully written fictional account of lesser known film studio Mercury Pictures in Los Angeles. The novel goes deeply into the background of some of its the employees and their families and what has ultimately brought them to Mercury Pictures in the early 1940s. Marra deftly weaves in the present-day (1940s) with the historical and cultural context as the US enters World War II and scrutinizes immigrants. I found it especially fascinating to learn how people emigrated to the United States from Europe during the early to mid twentieth century. I especially enjoyed Maria's story and her family background. Do ethics and morals shift with a changing world? What would you do for your family to survive and prosper? What will you do to survive? The writing is gorgeous and the characters and humor shine. I found this to be such an entertaining read about World War II without being explicitly about World War II. I listened to the audiobook, which was wonderfully read by Carlotta Brentan.

Thank you Random House / Hogarth and NetGalley for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Maria Lagana was born in Rome and forced to immigrate with her mother after her father’s arrest. Fifteen years later, Maria is working at Mercury Pictures as an associate producer. She is trying to keep her personal and professional life running but her mom won’t speak to her and her boss has been called before congress to testify.

Mercury Pictures is on the verge of bankruptcy so they start to hire European immigrants . Poets become screenwriters, architects build scale model miniatures, and actors come to LA to play the part of the villain that they were running from.

Then a stranger lands on Maria’s doorstep and she is confronted with what has happened to her father and how this revelation will effect her life.

This was definitely a different look at WWII. I don’t know that I have ever read anything that focuses on how Hollywood was affected by WWII. I really enjoyed the current timeline but the historical timeline was a bit slow.

I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion

I am always tempted by a new perspective on World War II, but at this point I really thought I was ready to move on. Then I saw that Anthony Marra had written a new book, so of course I requested it immediately on NetGalley. If you're familiar with his writing or his reputation, it will come as no surprise to you that I loved this book. Marra's writing, at least for me, has a feeling of nostalgia regardless of, but also in service to, his subject. His story is compelling, but it is really his characters that keep me reading. They are warm and vibrant and alive—even the most minor characters—in a way that I have not always seen in recent books. In Mercury Pictures Presents, Marra offers a Hollywood perspective on the war that I had not even considered. While this is literally worlds away in subject and emotion, from his previous novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, the same meticulous attention to detail, love for character, and care for history is evident. I have read books about the Japanese internment camps, but I think this is the first that gave me perspective on the restrictions and internment of "enemy alien" Italian-Americans. Also, I knew nothing about the war effort in Hollywood, so this aspect of the story was also intriguing. I spent a good bit of time reading more about the work of the studios and set designers online during and after reading it, which made me feel an extra debt to Marra, who taught me some interesting history along the way. Truly a terrific book.

We may think we’ve read all there is to read about World War II, but Anthony Marry has discovered and brought to life a segment that this reader has not seen before… what happened in Hollywood. While it is a war story, it’s more an immigrant’s tale, following well drawn, fascinating characters as they traverse from Nazi controlled Italy to the bright lights.

Marra braids the stories of Mercury Pictures a B grade movie house and the feuding twin brothers who run Mercury with stories from Hollywood personalities, overbearing politicians and displaced immigrants trapped in wartime quarantine. His characters include a photographer, an architect specializing in miniatures, a clever guilt-ridden daughter of the best lawyer in San Lorenzo, and a supporting cast of aunts, politicians, and ladder climbers to create an extensive though brilliant cast of characters. Throughout the story, Marra’s fresh language, sharp wit, and humor from a time where we’ve been conditioned to find none, carries a story threatens to break the reader. As it is, the humanity holds both the novel and the reader together. It’s simply brilliant.

Mercury Pictures Presents was released on August 2, 2022. Thanks to the publisher, Random House Hogarth for this advanced readers copy.

Mercury Pictures Presents is a work of historical fiction set in the Italy of rising fascism between the wars. Then the action shifts to California in the late 1930s, more specifically Hollywood and the titular studio which is to become home to many in the flight from Hitler and Mussolini. While we are inside the sometimes manic everyday studio operations led by Artie Feldman, we are even closer to Maria Lagana who has traveled from a village in Italy to Hollywood with hopes, sorrows, delayed dreams, and lots of intelligence.

The concept of “other” carries through this novel. As war approaches in the States, there are good and bad, or enemy, aliens. Many of those who escaped from Europe and found a place in Hollywood and elsewhere are now looked at differently. Even before the war’s start, some groups aren’t really acceptable except for the B grade movies.

Marra’s characters are wonderfully drawn. I felt for them. They come from around the world and end up in Los Angeles, but more specifically Hollywood. Some become new people before they arrive, others after they meet new employers and realize what is wanted or needed. Even now, a few days after I finished reading, I can see some of these people in my mind’s eye: one at her desk or with Artie, another always with his camera, still another working on the miniatures, and last, a man I came to really like talking with Bela Lugosi about life in Hollywood.

I recommend this book to everyone. Have patience with the changes of points of view. It will all make sense in the end. People traveling through…

4.5 rounded to 5*



A copy of this book was provided by Hogarth/Random House through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Disclaimer — I am a huge fan of Anthony Marra’s work. Years ago, I read Love in the Time of Techno, so I was extremely excited to dive into his latest Mercury Pictures Presents.
I was not disappointed. This book will not be for everyone, but it was right up my ally.

Maria Laguna fled fascist Italy with her mother to escape after she committed an act that imprisoned her father. In Los Angeles, Maria reinvents herself as right-hand-woman to the head of Mercury Pictures, a B-picture movie house hanging by a thread, teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. As the war progresses, refugees become part of Mercury in the effort to create war propaganda for the allies. The book follows multiple time lines and POVS and I would call it an extended family drama with vivid characters.

This was also an August pick for @parnassusbooks and @bookofthemonthclub.


Thank you to @netgalley and @hogarth for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra isn’t just another overdone “life during war” story. Esquisite character development and revealing strong bonds and deep ties from seemingly unlikely relationships makes this wartime novel a pleasurable read.

Funny , quirky, and endearing are adjectives that come to mind as the author delivers realistic life moments with stunning realism each one coming to life with a good dose of irony and humor. The authors ultimate success is to create empathy and yes even envy for these rather unlucky souls who nonetheless refuse to let the sadness of hardship overtake them. This is the kind of book that leaves one with new resolve to reflect on one’s best and comforting moments even on the worst of days. I closed the book, chin up, ready to take on anything that might come my way.

I really did not get along with this book, namely because of two main issues I had with it. First, the overly wordy writing. It felt like it was trying very hard to have personality and be punchy and vibrant but really it just made the story drag because it was so full of superfluous words. It also made it very hard to feel attached to the characters because it felt like we were constantly distanced from them by the writing. To me, it felt like the writing was trying to be clever rather than authentic to the characters. My second issue is that the story was just really unfocused. I had a hard time feeling attached to these characters because we jumped around plotlines so often. I found myself not caring all that much about the plot, and felt like the characters got swallowed up in the constantly switching timelines. Overall, this novel felt really confused to me, like it wanted to do too much.

Mara Lagana, has her reasons for leaving Italy. Her childhood was good and she was very close with her father. One Sunday, her father takes her to the movies and not to church, which changes their lives forever. Her mistake sets the ball rolling for her father to be arrested and her to move with her mother to America. They settle in, and start lives in California. Mara, misses Italy and her father but perseveres. She finds herself surrounded by other immigrants, who need to work. They all work at Mercury Pictures, that two very interesting brothers run. Life is not dull by any means and the years pass quickly.. Mara has a difficult relationship with her mother, the restrictions for Italian immigrants confine her to one area of LA and someone from her past comes and brings up all the things she tried to hide away.. Can Mara continue to rise through the ranks of the studio? Can she make peace with the past? This was a very well written story and I really enjoyed it. I want to thank Netgalley and Anthony Marra for my copy of Mercury Pictures, for an honest review. This was an excellent first novel and i gave it 4 stars. It was my pleasure to read & review.. I hope you enjoy it too!!!

Wow. I loved this book. I do not gravitate naturally toward historical fiction or books about 1940's Hollywood, but that didn't make any difference to me this time. I am now more convinced than ever that Anthony Marra can write about anything and create an amazing read. This is a beautifully written book with fascinating characters but it does cover very weighty and difficult topics. Anthony Marra is such an amazing writer and I will be eagerly awaiting his next book.

This book hits on a vast array of complicated topics ranging for the immigrant experience to the movie and propaganda industries during WW2. Almost too much. A dense jam packed book with great use of language. Both sobering and entertaining.

As editor, I requested this as background reading for a review we ran on BookBrowse -- so as to be able to comment on the review during the editing process and share personal views on it in newsletters etc. See link below to full review.

While very different from his previous books, Tony Marra shines in this historical novel with a message. Such interesting characters, set during a very sad nd interesting time in our history. Many parallels to today. We’ll worth the long wait.

Working at Mercury Pictures in 1940s Hollywood, Maria finds herself in the position of producer in an almost bankrupt studio run by an eccentric Jewish owner. As the World War II encroaches, many people escaping the brutal Nazi rule end up in this studio. With this cast of characters, author Anthony Marra has created a formidable book, well worth the read.

After reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book, I finally understood what the author was trying to say. I did not get the drift of his story while reading it. The story wandered too much for me. The author tried to bring in too many characters and their past lives for me to understand. The story strayed too much and I found it hard to follow. In the end, I did not care about the characters or the story.

This book was just a big dull and dry for my taste. A lot of conversations and character development without any real plot happening. It felt flat.

I adored this story. I love historical fiction and learning about things that have happened in the past. This book follows Maris from Italy to Los Angeles, where she starts her new life and then we see how things are going 15 years later. I loved the characters and the story. I stayed up late reading this book and could not put it down! So good! 5/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!

This was a refreshing and insightful take on Word War 2 historical fiction. It explored the relationship between art, propaganda, politics, business, and war in ways that I have not encountered.

I was thrilled when I heard Anthony Marra was coming out with a new novel. Honestly, I really didn't care what it was going to be about. His first novel, A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA was so brilliant that I could barely believe it was his first novel. And he was only 28 years old. Expectations were high for this new novel.

MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS is nothing like CONSTELLATION. This new novel begins in the 1940's in Los Angeles. It's set in Hollywood. And it's set in Italy and Germany during WW11.

Maria Lagana escapes Rome with her mother. Maria's activist father is left behind and condemned to a life of confino (internal exile) after some of his writing is found by the government. We discover that it was Maria, at the age of twelve, who was the one who brought attention to these writings, and she will live with this guilt the rest of her life. Mother and daughter flee to Los Angeles where they are taken in by three of her mother's sisters. Talk about characters. And this is where Marra shows his ability to inject amazing wit into his stories. By the way; the aunts are named after Marra's own aunts.

Now we're in Hollywood and Maria is hired by Art Feldman to be a producer at his studio, Mercury Pictures. Art and his twin brother are running the show. The brothers are like oil and water. And they only grow farther apart as the story unfolds.

With a vast cast of unique characters, Marra is able to address a myriad of issues that actually echo some of the same issues we are dealing with right now. Issues of race, politics, war, women's rights, and even immigration. Some things change, yet seem to stay the same.

I'm going to be honest and say that this is not an easy novel to read. But the writing is brilliant. Marra's sense of wit and cast of characters is so bright that you will keep thinking of them long after you've turned the last page.



This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is anthony-marra.webp
Anthony Marra
Marra traveled to Calabria where so much of the novel is set. He spent time in Germany. And he's able to portray L.A. so well because he lived there at one time. Sense of place is tantamount to plot for me and Marra has done a super job of it. He always does.

I read MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS digitally through NetGalley and Hogarth publishing in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this novel should be on every book club's line up for this season! And now I'm already anticipating Marra's next novel.

A globe-spanning story of WWII Hollywood, with all of its splendors and bigotry. Marra's latest novel is a story about story-tellers, people reinventing their lives after escaping Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, movie-makers spinning dreams, politicians seeking to influence public opinion.

This is historical fiction at its most engrossing!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.