The Comeback

In Berman’s debut, a young actor struggles to break free from a famous Hollywood director. Grace Turner, 23, has been living in her parents’ house in Anaheim, Calif., in the year since she disappeared on the eve of the Golden Globes. Grace is newly sober and out of the spotlight that has followed her since she was a 15-year-old British schoolgirl handpicked by director Able Yorke for the starring role in a trilogy. Able, widely respected in the industry and by the public, changes Grace’s life at the cost of years of emotional manipulation and, eventually, sexual abuse. When Grace finds out that her younger sister, with whom she’s long had a rocky relationship, is moving back home, she decides to return to Los Angeles and find a way to move forward with her life. But going back also means confronting all she left behind, including her estranged, still beloved husband Dylan; the paparazzi, always hungry to document her slip-ups; and, of course, Able, who still casts a long shadow over her life. While a slow first half wears on the reader, the late scenes of confrontation are electrifying. Berman’s searing psychological portrait shows how Grace’s girlhood is corrupted by Able’s rampant ego and the industry’s unencumbered patriarchy. Agent: David Forrer, Inkwell Management. (Aug.)