Proof of Progress
Elizabeth Castellano

A witty and sharp-tongued novel about a writer and actress who finally comes to write the manuscript that is thirty-seven years overdue - for fans ofWe All Want Impossible ThingsandThe Correspondent.

Maria Astorini, once late-night talk show darling, is having a moment. The B-list actress has survived deaths, divorces, a famous mother, a Hollywood blacklist, a string of public embarrassments, an aging face, financial ruin, an empty nest, a difficult best friend, and a worldwide pandemic. Now, she's back and bigger than ever. A small, unexpected role has heightened her celebrity status and propelled her, at age sixty-five, into the limelight. And then, along comes the call Maria has spent decades avoiding. It's her publisher asking, 'Where is that book?'

But Maria hasn't been able to write a book about her life - she's been too busy living it. To finally fulfil her contract, Maria writes, or attempts to write, a pile of pages meant to vaguely resemble the book she promised to deliver nearly four decades earlier.

In a series of bite-sized anecdotes, she candidly recalls her past, chronicling the significant, and insignificant, moments of her full, funny and extraordinarily unpredictable life.the book she promised to deliver nearly four decades earlier.

In a series of bite-sized anecdotes, she candidly recalls her past, chronicling the significant, and insignificant, moments of her full, funny and extraordinarily unpredictable life.the book she promised to deliver nearly four decades earlier.

In a series of bite-sized anecdotes, she candidly recalls her past, chronicling the significant, and insignificant, moments of her full, funny and extraordinarily unpredictable life.the book she promised to deliver nearly four decades earlier.

In a series of bite-sized anecdotes, she candidly recalls her past, chronicling the significant, and insignificant, moments of her full, funny and extraordinarily unpredictable life.