Excerpt from Delayed Rays of a Star by Amanda Lee Koe, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Still is fine, she called out after him, still water is better for me if you wouldn't mind, but he had already left to fetch up the seltzer. When Anna May turned back, a flour- faced brunette in a long- sleeved metallic knit dress was standing rather too close, introducing herself as "just like you— also an actress— but here in Berlin." She was well dressed, if in the self- conscious way of a freshly clipped poodle, and she had quick, darting eyes. With no small talk, she wanted practical tips for transitioning into Hollywood. Already I have appeared in several Bergfilms, the brunette said. Are there mountain movies in America? Do I need an agent?

I'm not sure about mountains, Anna May said, but as long as it has a love story—

It's true, isn't it? A blonde stepped in, interrupting their conversation apropos of nothing. Only pansies know how to dress like a sexy woman.

Anna May did not know what she was talking about, but the woman had a charmingly nasal voice. A wavy lock of hair came loose across the blonde's forehead as she took a short drag on her cigarette, tucked vertically into a holder shaped like a pipe. She nodded approvingly toward a gamine man in a red dress. The man's dress was cut down to his coccyx, and he was on the arm of a man in a velvet smoking jacket, with a matching wine- red rose for a boutonnière in his lapel.

Personally I find such aberrations troubling, the mountain- movie actress said, after the couple had passed. The world might as well be topsy- turvy.

The blonde exhaled smoke into their faces without blowing it upward.

What's not to like about a topsy- turvy world, the blonde said, pushing back the curl from her forehead. Women would be kings, and I'd wear pants all the time.

Anna May saw the brunette clutching for a rejoinder, but before she could open her mouth, a dignified- looking man with a camera (or was it just a man with a dignified- looking camera?) approached them. The brunette surged forward to exchange a social embrace with him.

He wanted to take their picture.

All three of us, the brunette hesitated, together?

Yes, the photographer said, if they found themselves suitably inclined?

As the three shuffled together, the blonde met Anna May's eye. Her gaze was sportive and insolent. Did this woman go through life looking at everyone this way, and how did that pan out for her? Before Anna May could look away, she was wet down the front of her dress.

The flute of champagne had slipped from the blonde's hand.

I am so sorry, the blonde said, holding up Anna May's string of pearls, dabbing the damp with a scented silk handkerchief. I ought to be spanked thoroughly!

At this, the brunette gave a scandalized snort. Though he tried to hide his amusement, the photographer was clearly enjoying the frivolous spectacle. The wet fabric clung to her skin, and Anna May tried to hunch her ribs and breasts away from the surface of the dress. Far from home for the first time, she had already been nervous enough— worrying that she was embarrassing herself even as she enjoyed herself— even without an infelicitous wardrobe hiccup.

Prior to the voyage, she'd prepared an annotated list of questions and answers.

Can you tell us about the films you have acted in, what projects are you working on in Europe, who are your favorite directors, how did you know you wanted to be an actress? She'd made phonetic annotations in her notebook on how best to pronounce Robert Wiene (VEEN) and Fritz Lang (LAHNG), but thus far the question most often put to her was: How do you mean you aren't from China? Having been born and bred in L.A., Anna May had to admit that she well and truly had not thought to prepare for that. When she was little, her father told her China was on the opposite side of the world from California. Later she asked him if that meant people walked upside down in China. Her father laughed, patted her head. The conclusive answer never came, and she did not dare ask again.

Excerpted from Delayed Rays of a Star by Amanda Lee Koe. Copyright © 2019 by Amanda Lee Koe . Excerpted by permission of Nan A. Talese. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.