James Frey

An ambitious young Mexican-American woman compromises her future in a moment of searing humiliation, while a narcissistic action-movie star risks everything in his obsession over an unattainable love, and a young couple escapes their suffocating home and struggles for survival on the fringes of Los Angeles. 350,000 first printing.

Bright Shiny Morning

Nadav Spiegelman

Robert Yang

Claudia Bennett

Amy Maddess

Andreas Lanjerud

Welcome to LA. City of contradictions. It is home to movie stars and down-and-outs. Palm-lined beaches and gridlock. Shopping sprees and gun sprees. Bright Shiny Morning takes a wild ride through the ultimate metropolis, where glittering excess rubs shoulders with seedy depravity. Frey's trademark filmic snapshots zoom in on the parallel lives of diverse characters, bringing their egos and ideals, hopes and despairs, anxieties and absurdities vividly to life. Some suffer, like the otherworldly wino who tries to save a spoilt teenage runaway. Others gain, like the canny talent agent who turns sexual harassment to blackmailing advantage. Some are loaded, or grounded, and have luck on their side. Others, like the countless actresses-turned-hookers, or schoolboys-turned-gangsters, are doomed.