When We Were Brilliant
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About the Book
When We Were Brilliant
In 1952, Norma Jeane Baker follows documentary photographer Eve Arnold into a powder room on the night they first meet. She has a proposition for her. Norma Jeane created Marilyn Monroe to be photographed, and she wants Eve to do it. Eve is better than anyone she’s seen at revealing a person’s inner truth. Together they can help each other. Together, she says, they can make something brilliant. Skeptical of this cipher of a young woman, Eve demurs. She’s looking for more serious subjects than this ambitious starlet. But she keeps getting drawn back into Marilyn’s orbit, and the women come to recognize something in each other --- something fundamental. Nothing will get in the way of what they want, and when Marilyn’s star takes off to teetering heights, neither will ever be the same.
When We Were Brilliant
- Publication Date: January 20, 2026
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Berkley
- ISBN-10: 0593815858
- ISBN-13: 9780593815854


