Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012.

The Pink Hotel is a tale about finding love in the most unlikely of places, and how sometimes you can only know who you are by discovering who you are not. This is the second novel from the author of the critically acclaimed 2003 debut Isabel and Rocco.

Synopsis

A seventeen-year-old London girl flies to Los Angeles for the funeral of her mother Lily, 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 Lily's past and tries to re-enact her life, she comes to question the foundations of her own personality.

Reviews

'Astonishingly good... '
The Times

'A poignant novel about identity, and a love/hate letter to LA.'
Glamour Magazine

'Matters of personal identity underlie an exhilarating ride through LA's seamier side in the company of a hard-bitten yet highly engaging protagonist.'
The Daily Mail

'A gently transgressive, transatlantic quest that conjures up both the languid heat of LA and the confusions of a young woman on the cusp.'
The Lady

About the Author

Anna Stothard 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 programme 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 and on finishing her MA she returned to London. She lives in Hampstead, London. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation