Excerpt from Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Sometimes she felt life had professionalized her to hide in plain sight. Fascism and Catholicism had educated her in navigating repressive ideologies, and growing up a girl in an Italian family meant you were, existentially, suggested rather than shown. Gesture and insinuation comprised the Italian American vernacular, from mamma to Mafia, and coming from a diaspora where desires and death threats went articulately unspoken, Maria had a knack for smuggling subtext past the border guards of decorum at the Production Code Administration. Nevertheless, in the case of Devil's Bargain, she agreed with the censors' decision. Meddling in politics was for the rich, the powerful, or the self-destructive; she learned this from her father's example and had no wish to become him.

"I think this one is well and truly Breened," she said.

Excerpted from Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra. Copyright © 2022 by Anthony Marra. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.