Typewriter Beach

by Meg Waite Clayton

Genres: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea and in 1950s Hollywood—in the days of the studio system and McCarthy-era scaremongering about an America “riddled with communists and homosexuals”—Typewriter Beach is the unforgettable story of an unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star.

1957. Isabella Giori is ten months into a standard seven-year studio contract when she auditions with Hitchcock. Just weeks later, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a charming little Carmel-by-the-Sea cottage. She’s there to deal with a secret.

Meanwhile, next door, Leon Chazan is annoyed as hell when Iz interrupts his work on yet another screenplay he won’t be able to sell, because he’s been blacklisted. They begin an unlikely friendship.

2018. Twenty-six-year-old screenwriter Gemma Chazan, in Carmel to sell her grandfather’s cottage, finds a hidden safe full of secrets that raise questions about who the screenwriter known simply as Chazan really was—and whether she can live up to his name.

In its exploration of Hollywood and Carmel-by-the-Sea then and now, Typewriter Beach is a sophisticated tale of politics, art, and love of all kinds.

Release date: July 1, 2025

Publisher: HarperCollins

Print pages: 320