Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2013
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Paperback
A seventeen-year-old London girl flies to Los Angeles for the funeral of her mother Mandy, from whom she had been separated in her childhood. After stealing a suitcase of letters, clothes and photographs from her mum's bedroom at the top of a hotel on Venice Beach, the girl spends her summer travelling around Los Angeles returning love letters and photographs to the men who had known her mother. As she discovers more about Mandy's past and tries to re-enact her life, she comes to question the foundations of her own personality.
"Ignore the chick-lit-ish title. This story works hard to be worldly-wise and cool, and it sometimes succeeds." - Kirkus
"This fictional memoir of loss and redemption, with its sympathetic narrator, will appeal to readers who like their coming-of-age stories on the seedier and melancholy side." - Library Journal
"A sensitively drawn portrait of a troubled young woman, [Stothard's narrator] is convincing…An elegant noirish mystery…This touching, convoluted love-story is shot through with a distinctive talent." - The Independent (UK)
"Matters of personal identity underlie an exhilarating ride through L.A.'s seamier side in the company of a hard-bitten yet highly engaging protagonist." - Daily Mail (UK)
This information about The Pink Hotel was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Anna was born in London. She has written weekly columns in the Observer and the Sunday Telegraph, among other freelance journalism. Her first novel, Isabel and Rocco, was published in 2004. She did her undergraduate degree at Oxford, then moved to Los Angeles where she was awarded a screenwriting scholarship with the Masters program at the American Film Institute. While studying she lived in a surreal mock-German castle in Little Armenia and worked on film sets for two years - script supervising, production design departments - and on finishing her MA she returned to London. She is currently working in London and writing her third novel.
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