Press

“Riotous and well-wrought.”

—Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2025

“Daniel D’Addario shows why it’s not always an honor just to be nominated.”

—Time’s 39 Most Anticipated Books of 2025

“A sharp-eyed examination of the toll pursuing a career in the arts can take, even and especially when one is at the top of her game.”

—Booklist

“At first glance, The Talent is a dishy satire—a take-no-prisoners account of the vapidity of Hollywood, the vacuity of celebrity. Daniel D’Addario’s confident debut is something far wilier, though. The novel explores the rivalries and anxieties of an ingenue, an icon, a serious thespian, a perennial almost-ran, and a now-grown child star, but isn’t simply about the lives of actors. It’s a book about performance as an art, and the social performance of the self, a biting but somehow affectionate novel about contemporary life.”

—Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Entitlement

“At once a captivating, razor-sharp peek under the red carpet of a tumultuous awards season and moving portrait of women wrestling with the profound weight of the A-list, this unforgettable novel will make certain that the next time an actor declares an award to be heavier than it looks, you will know precisely what they mean.”

—Bobby Finger, author of Four Squares and The Old Place

“At once a sumptuous Hollywood novel and a trenchant exploration of fame, The Talent lays bare the horrors and glories of our hyper-performative, status-obsessed era. D’Addario delivers a performance worthy of the stars he writes about—biting, heartbreaking, deeply imagined, and entrancing.”

—Daniel Lefferts, author of Ways and Means

“The Talent is a thrilling, engrossing, behind-the-scenes look at who gets muddy in the run-up to awards season, as five potential best actresses campaign to catch the big one. You won’t be able to put it down.”

—Julia Phillips, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth and Bear

“Utterly alive, dazzlingly brilliant, and so true-to-life I literally had to stop myself—multiple times!—from Googling the titular leading ladies, The Talent is in a class of its own. With audacity and empathy, acuity and wit, D’Addario interrogates ambition, celebrity, and legacy to devastating effect. What a thrill to know, finally, what it’s like to peer into the big screen from the other side.”

—Andrew Lipstein, author of Something Rotten and The Vegan