Equal parts biography and detective story, Hollywood’s Eve tracks the remarkable life and career of Eve Babitz, from her days rocking and rolling on the Sunset Strip, to her discovery as a writer by Joan Didion, to the aftermath of a freak fire in the 90s that turned her into a recluse.

The goddaughter of Igor Stravinsky and a graduate of Hollywood High, Eve Babitz posed in 1963, at age twenty, playing chess with the French artist Marcel Duchamp. She was naked; he was not. The photograph made her an instant icon. Babitz spent the rest of the decade honing her notoriety, and then went on to produce seven books, usually billed as novels or short story collections, always autobiographies and confessionals. Under-known and under-read during her career, she’s since experienced a breakthrough.

This book is the result of Lili Anolik’s investigation: into Eve, tracking her down in 2012, and into Eve’s writing. Combining literary criticism with Hollywood gossip, explorations of artists and muses, a memoir and an ode to LA, the many facets of Hollywood’s Eve will delight fans of Babitz and introduce newcomers alike.

“What Hollywood’s Eve has going for it on every page is its subject’s utter refusal to be dull… It sends you racing to read the work of Eve Babitz.” The New York Times