"There's just so much rich material in Hollywood during the 1940s—which is where much of the book is set—there is just sort of an endless rabbit hole you can go down. And of course, one of the problems with writing a book about the movie industry is that sitting around watching movies technically counts as research." We still think about Anthony Marra's incredible debut, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, years after first reading. His newest novel, Mercury Pictures Presents, is an epic story of family secrets, love and war, loyalty and reinvention that cuts between Hollywood and Mussolini's Italy in the 1930s and 40s—and it's the August B&N Book Club pick. Anthony joins us on the show to talk about mapping stories, the landscape of exile and imprisonment, the importance of humor, research and rewrites and snappy dialogue, his literary inspirations (including Zadie Smith and David Mitchell), and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book reviews from Marc and Becky.

Featured Books (episode):

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra

Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels by Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan

A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

A full transcript of this episode is available here.