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NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM, STARRING ANA DE ARMAS, ADRIEN BRODY, BOBBY CANNAVALE AND JULIANNE NICHOLSON, DIRECTED BY ANDREW DOMINIK

‘A torrentially imaginative, compulsively readable tour de force’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A fabulous reinvention of the life of a fabulous reinvention, and a cracking page-turner to boot’ Evening Standard

Blonde is a mesmerising novel about the most enduring and evocative cultural icon of the 20th century: the woman who became Marilyn Monroe. A fragile and gifted young woman, Norma Jeane Baker makes and remakes her identity: she is the orphan whose mother is declared mad; the woman who changes her name to be an actress; the fated celebrity, lover and muse. Told in her voice, Blonde shows a culture hypnotised by its own myths, and the devastating effects it had on Hollywood’s greatest star.

‘This masterpiece about Marilyn Monroe’s life is audacious, gripping and clever’ Rose Tremain

‘If you haven’t read Joyce Carol Oates before, start here, and now’ Independent

Publisher Review

'Nobody has ever caught Marilyn more brilliantly in words than Oates.' Sunday Times 'Oates has been fearless in taking on a subject that criss-crossed almost every important strand of mid twentieth century history...Apart from her, only Don Delillo, among today's American novelists, and no one at all among today's American women novelists, would be able to handle such a huge cast of imagined and real characters...A mighty - and a mesmerising - book.' Literary Review 'This novel deserves a wide audience. "Blonde" is what whole shelvesful of Monroe biographies should be but are not - a fabulous reinvention of the life of a fabulous reinvention, a mirror on our collective vanities and a cracking page turner to boot.' Evening Standard '"Blonde" is an epic achievement, a masterpiece, a piece of art so shatteringly well-conceived and lavishly-wrought that at times it almost does not seem like a mere book...If this book doesn't catapult Joyce Carol Oates into British best sellerdom, nothing will.' Independent on Sunday 'Novelists such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer slug it out for the title of the Great American Novelist. But maybe they're wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the Great American Novelist is a woman.' The Herald