The film Casablanca opens with the words, “With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas.” Leslie Epstein’s Hill of Beans is the story of how one nation, one industry, and in particular one man responded to that desperate hope. That man is Jack Warner. His impossible goal is to make world events—most importantly, the invasion of North Africa by British and American forces in 1942—coincide with the release of his new film about a group of refugees marooned in Morocco. Arrayed against him are Stalin and Hitler, as well as Josef Goebbels, Franklin Roosevelt, a powerful gossip columnist, and above all a beautiful young woman with a terrible secret. His only weapons are his hutzpah and his heroism as he struggles to bring cinema and city, conflict and conference together in an epic command performance.
Hill of Beans is the novel that Leslie Epstein—the son and nephew of Philip and Julius Epstein, the screenwriters of Casablanca—was born to write.
ACCLAIM
“Leslie Epstein spins a captivating tale, a supple mix of history and fiction that will delight lovers of wartime drama, studio lore, and the outsize personalities of old Hollywood.”—Noah Isenberg, author of We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie
“Packed with a master’s class worth of history and whiplash and laugh-out-loud funny Judaic black humor, Hill of Beans is a Pynchonesque blend of the serious and the absurd, not so much counterfactual as factual-plus—a novel that weaves a must-read, behind-the-scenes story of America making war while Hollywood makes movies.”—Thomas Doherty, author of Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist
“Comedic and elegiac, farcical and tragic, complex and engrossing, Leslie Epstein’s Hill of Beans is an energetic and entertaining depiction of the symbiotic relationship between moviemaking and warmongering. This detailed and imaginative representation of Hollywood dynamics and military events, before and during World War II, is revealed through the minds and motives of multiple characters.”—Margaret Porter, author of Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leslie Epstein is an award-winning author who has written eleven other books of fiction, including the celebrated novels San Remo Drive and King of the Jews. He teaches at Boston University, where he directed the Creative Writing Program for thirty-six years.
Genre: Historical
Hill of Beans is the novel that Leslie Epstein—the son and nephew of Philip and Julius Epstein, the screenwriters of Casablanca—was born to write.
ACCLAIM
“Leslie Epstein spins a captivating tale, a supple mix of history and fiction that will delight lovers of wartime drama, studio lore, and the outsize personalities of old Hollywood.”—Noah Isenberg, author of We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie
“Packed with a master’s class worth of history and whiplash and laugh-out-loud funny Judaic black humor, Hill of Beans is a Pynchonesque blend of the serious and the absurd, not so much counterfactual as factual-plus—a novel that weaves a must-read, behind-the-scenes story of America making war while Hollywood makes movies.”—Thomas Doherty, author of Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist
“Comedic and elegiac, farcical and tragic, complex and engrossing, Leslie Epstein’s Hill of Beans is an energetic and entertaining depiction of the symbiotic relationship between moviemaking and warmongering. This detailed and imaginative representation of Hollywood dynamics and military events, before and during World War II, is revealed through the minds and motives of multiple characters.”—Margaret Porter, author of Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leslie Epstein is an award-winning author who has written eleven other books of fiction, including the celebrated novels San Remo Drive and King of the Jews. He teaches at Boston University, where he directed the Creative Writing Program for thirty-six years.
Genre: Historical
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