A delectable satirical novel about celebrity culture, journalism, truth, lies, consequences, about the fictions we tell ourselves and the fictions we tell others. Augusta Price (not her real name) is famous in England for playing a slatternly barmaid on a nighttime soap opera and for falling down drunk in public. Now, she has no job, no relationship with her long-lost son, and a sad shortage of tranquilizers, but she has had an improbable hit with her memoir (which is, based on a true story, but only very loosely). But when, Frances Bleeker, an insecure and not very successful American tabloid journalist, tells Augusta that a man she once loved has written a book, Augusta becomes terrified that her life story will be revealed as the web of lies it really is. She sets out on a trans-Atlantic journey from London to California to seek revenge on her former lover, a journey that will require the reluctant help of Frances.
