The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan

(Paperback)

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Now repackaged in mass market paperback, an early chilling thriller about a serial killer about to strike again from New York Times bestselling author Kevin O'Brien-"If Alfred Hitchcock was alive today and writing novels, his name would be Kevin O'Brien" (Press & Guide on Unspeakable). At first, the deaths seem random. A young Portland couple brutally murdered in a game gone awry...a Chicago woman who plummeted to her death from an office building...an aspiring screenwriter asphyxiated in his New York apartment. But the macabre souvenirs television reporter Sydney Jordan receives hint at a connection that is both personal and terrifying. After events in her own life went wrong, Sydney fled to Seattle with her teenage son. But instead of getting a fresh start, Sydney is plagued by strange occurrences. Someone is watching, someone who knows her intimately...someone who's just waiting to play the next move in a twisted game. She is his chosen one. Every murder is a sign, and soon, Sydney will understand why each victim had to suffer-and why she's the next in line...

Reviews

Fascinating. . . . Vibrant. . . . Essential. . . . A valuable contribution to theater history. The New York Times

Kazans unstoppable drive and restless energy . . . spring from almost every page of this meaty volume. . . . His complicated personality bristles forth, like a constant chorus of firecrackers. The New York Times Book Review

Vivid, pungent and forceful, Elia Kazans letters immerse us in the life of a working director. . . . An honest look at a complicated artist. The Washington Post

The candid Kazan voice is at full throttle. . . There are blow-by-blow accounts of Kazans creative path on most of his major film and stage projects. . . . No less fascinating are exchanges about some of his more instructive failures. The New York Review of Books

The letters chart his tireless activity, his remarkable combination of combativeness and self-deprecation, charm and (where possible) loyalty . . .Above all we get a sense of the cost to himself and others of [his] extraordinary achievements . . . the struggles and the vision, sustained across decades, that brought them to fruition. London Telegraph

Insightful, dynamic, and culturally important, Kazan . . . was that rarityan articulate first-class mind, engaged and in action. These 300 letters are a marvelous pool to illuminate Kazans backstage processes, both personal and creative. Choice

Engrossing . . . An impressive work of scholarship, this collection offers a sweeping look at sixty years of American popular culture and an intimate portrait of one complex man whirling at its center. Kirkus Reviews

These vibrant, muscular, outspoken, take-no-prisoners letters tell you everything you will ever need to know about the theater,relationships between artists, Hollywood illusions, affairs of the heart, family. Kazan had an amazing life and a brilliant career, and he wrote with eloquence, passion, and truth. These letters are to be treasured. Andr Bishop, Producing Artistic Director, Lincoln Center Theater

Elia Kazans letters crackle with the impulsive exuberance of a vital, brilliant, ambitious man wholly devoted to craft. And they tell the not-to-be-missed story of American politics and American art, deeply entwined, during the fatally conflicted era that is our inheritance. Brenda Wineapple, author of White Heat

Compulsively readable . . . Few entertainment figures had the particular combination of passion, feistiness, diligence, and longevity that made Kazan such a prodigious letter writer. The Selected Letters is a history of the golden age of Broadway and Hollywood as seen through the eyes of a man who irrevocably transformed both industries. Julian Sancton, Departures

Elia Kazan lived, directed, and wrote from his gut. He was a powerhouse. His scrupulously edited Selected Letters carries the same unflinching, instinctive, brilliant wallop: vividly alive, self-aware, fervent, resourceful. . . . They are incandescent witness to the century he so fiercely bustled in. John Lahr

Author Bio

Before his thrillers landed him on the New York Times bestseller list, Kevin O'Brien was a railroad inspector who wrote novels at night. His first thriller, The Next to Die jumped up the USA Today bestseller charts. He's been writing full-time ever since. Four of his thrillers, including Vicious, have been New York Times bestsellers. Kevin O'Brien grew up in Chicago, and later moved to Seattle where he currently lives. Visit him at kevinobrienbooks.com.