The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly: A Novel

(Hardback)

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When a runway model in 1940s Hollywood makes a split-second decisionintendedto protect those she loves, she triggers a cascade of secrets that threatens to upend her daughters life decades later.

Afterwinning a prestigious fashion design contest in 1948, Aster Kelly flees the world of modeling in New York and arrives in Beverly Hills to claim her prize: a design apprenticeship with Fernando Tivoli. But Fernando has no such job available. Hes busily preparing for the opportunity of a lifetimeproving to Galaxy Studios that he is the perfect couturier for their A-list stars. The moment he meets Aster, though, he knows shes the missing ingredient he needs and asks her to be his stand-in model for Lauren Bacall. Aster is dismayed to once again have her creative potential sidelined, but when Fernando promises to mentor her if he wins thecontract, she agrees.

Aster and Fernando quickly become romantically entangled with Hollywood insidersAster with the head of Galaxy Studios, Fernando with their biggest up-and-coming star, Christopher PageandAster and Fernandosfriendship becomes essential as they navigate a glamorous and complicated existence where whats real must often be hidden, andno one is quite who they seem. As Asters ambitions grow and she faces a crisis, and Fernandos future is threatened by thejudgmentalHollywood machine, Aster makes a decision that changes the trajectory of their lives forever.

Twenty-five years later, despite knowing little of her mothers time in Hollywood and being raised well outside the reaches of fame, Asters daughter Lissy is poised to become a Broadway star. But when the musical gets off to a rocky start, Lissy makes a rash decision of her own in an attempt to save the show. And when long-buried secrets blindside them both, mother and daughter are forced to question everything they thought they knew.

The Hidden Life of Aster Kellyis a story about the bonds of chosen family, the cost of fame and the enduring strength of love that will keep you guessing until the last page.

Reviews

This is a story about the long tendrils of the past, and a look at all the shapes that love can takesoul mates, friends, mothers and daughters, and an artists passion for creating. What a ride! -- Gin Phillips, author ofFierce KingdomandFamily Law
"With a setting that ranges from late-40s Hollywood, its glamour, machinations, and dark secrets, to a gritty mid-70s New York City full of Broadway hopefuls, The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly is an immersive, tender story about the long journey back to our true selves, and to finding real love. In creating Aster Kelly, Katherine Sherbrooke has given us a singular and unforgettable character." -- Sarah McCraw Crow, author ofThe Wrong Kind of Woman
"Sherbrooke writes both the fashion and entertainment worlds with such authority, its hard to decide whether to applaud this book more for its deft use of setting or for the plot twists that had me gobbling up pages in record time...THE HIDDEN LIFE OF ASTER KELLY also delivers when it comes to the characters of Aster and Lissy, a mother and daughter entangled in a web of lies stemming only from the best of intentions. Immersive setting, original story, and true emotion, this book is a triple threat." -- Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg, Author of EdenandThe Nine
"Elegantly told and heart-wrenching,The Hidden Life of Aster Kellydelights from first page to last. Come for the Old Hollywood glamour; stay for the love letter to Broadway; leave with characters so real youll forget they live in the pages of a book. One thing is certainKatherine Sherbrooke sure knows how to tell a story." -- Lisa Duffy, author of My Kind of People
"Katherine SherbrookesThe Hidden Life of Aster Kelly takes us from the haute couture runways of 1940s Hollywood and its galaxy of stars, to the quaint island of Marthas Vineyard, to the Broadway footlights of New York City in the 1970s. Richly detailed and sumptuously costumed, readers will love the behind the scenes look at the struggles and triumphs, lives and loves of entertainers on both coasts in two different eras." * Juliette Faye,USA Todaybestselling author ofShelter MeandCity of Flickering Light *
"Infinitely readable, atmospheric and emotionally charged,The Hidden Life of Aster Kellyfollows Aster, an ambitious young woman in old Hollywood who is following a dream she can't quite catch. But it's her journey to find enduring love that makes the pages fly. From the glamorous runways of Hollywood to the glittery shores of a summer island,Aster Kellywont disappoint with its ability to surprise and delight the reader with its twists and turns. Book club fiction at its best. -- Brooke Lea Foster, author ofOn Gin Lane
"Drama and secrets saturate Hollywoodon and off the screen.InThe Hidden Life of Aster Kelly, Sherbrooke deftly weaves an intimate look at forbidden love, heartbreak, and life-changing secrets, into a journey through decades of braided worlds of fashion and entertainment from New York to California." -- Randy Susan Meyers, Bestselling author,Waisted
"A staunch activist in the fight for womens rights who got her start among New Englands abolitionists, [Lucy Stone] has been overshadowed in the historical record by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. AnthonyKatherine A. SherbrookesLeaving Coys Hillaims to revive interest in Stone by dramatizing her dogged attempts to support herself and her causes on the lecture circuit and her equally dogged attempts to reconcile her professional career with motherhood and a marriage of equals." * New York Times Book Review; Summer Reading 2021 *
Lucy Stones lifelong contribution to both the suffrage and abolitionist causes makes her a fascinating subject for a novel.Leaving Coys Hilloffers the reader the chance to encounter a range of fascinating famous figures from 19th-century America, including Frederick Douglass and Antoinette Blackwell, Stones sister-in-law and the first woman to be an ordained minister in America.
* Historical Novels Society *
"What could be more timely thanSherbrookes gorgeously fictionalized and page-turning account of Lucy Stone, the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree, to keep her maiden name, and to fight for womens rightsA stunning look at timeless issueshow we navigate motherhood and career, marriage or staying single, and how we create change in a world that seems to have gone crazy, all told through the lens of one extraordinary heroine." -- Caroline Leavitt, New York Times Bestselling author of Pictures of You and With or Without You

Author Bio

Katherine A. Sherbrookeis the author ofFill the Sky,which was a finalist for the May Sarton Award for Contemporary Fiction and the Foreword Indies Book of the Year, and won a 2017 Independent Press Award as well asLeaving Coy'sHill, also published by Pegasus Books. She is Chair of the GrubStreet Creative Writing Center in Boston and lives south of the city with her husband, two sons, and black lab.