Personality

"The book is so bustling and rich-we get every old lady and barfly on the island, with their letters, diaries, secrets-that the darkness seems lit from end to end."-The New Yorker

When thirteen-year-old Maria Tambini wins a TV talent show with her beautiful singing voice, she is whisked from her Scottish island home to London and instant stardom. But the "little girl with the giant voice" loses herself in fame, and wages a private war against her own body. Can she be saved by love? Or will she be consumed by an obsessive culture, family ties, and her number one fan? A stunning novel, at once a rich portrait of an immigrant community and a tragic tale of the hidden costs of celebrity.

"O'Hagan is a writer of almost shocking tenderness. The key to his achievement here is that-as one character observes about the pleasure of books-he slows 'life down to a heartbeat.'"-Elle

Born in Glasgow, Andrew O'Hagan is the widely celebrated author of The Missing and Our Fathers, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. He is the recipient of the 2003 E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in London.

Growing up on the Scottish Isle of Bute, Maria Tambini is a young girl with dreams of escape from her Italian immigrant family. When her amazing singing voice wins her a talent show at the tender age of thirteen, she is whisked off to London and instant stardom.

But even as Maria is celebrating her greatest success, she is waging a hidden battle against her own body, and becoming in the process a living exhibit in the modern drama of celebrity. Can she be saved by love? Or will she be consumed by an obsessive celebrity culture, family lies, and by her number-one fan?

This stunning novel is a rich portrait of an immigrant community and a tragic tale of the hidden costs of celebrity.