Ruth Scurr

A dark emerald set in the Irish laureate’s fictional tiara: Actress, by Anne Enright, reviewed

Enright has been rehearsing this novel for many years — a portrait of a matriarch that is multi-faceted but completely lucid

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  • Actress

    Anne Enright

    Cape, pp. 264, £16

Actress is the novel Anne Enright has been rehearsing since her first collection of stories, The Portable Virgin (1991). It is a perfect jewel of a book, a dark emerald set in the Irish laureate’s fictional tiara, alongside her Man Booker Prize winner The Gathering (2007) and The Green Road (2015).

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