My second book, Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood’s First South Asian Star, will be published by W.W. Norton & Company on March 4, 2025. You can preorder it on Bookshop, directly from my publisher, or anywhere else where books are sold.
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
A beautiful reclamation of a pioneering South Asian actress captures her glittering, complicated life and lasting impact on Hollywood.
Merle Oberon attained Hollywood immortality with a nomination for a Best Leading Actress Oscar for her role in the 1935 film The Dark Angel. It was the first time a performer of color had received an acting nomination at the Academy Awards, but because Oberon concealed her South Asian identity throughout her lifetime and “passed” for white, very few people knew it. In Love, Queenie, the first biography in more than forty years of the India-born actress, Mayukh Sen draws on family interviews and previously untapped archival research to animate the Wuthering Heights star’s hard-won journey to fame. From an upbringing in poverty, she rose to the highest echelons of the film-world elite during Hollywood’s racially exclusionary Golden Age. A major biography of an often-overlooked talent, Love, Queenie empathetically captures one woman’s story while illuminating truths on race, gender, and power that still resonate today.
EARLY PRAISE FOR LOVE, QUEENIE:
“Sen’s thorough research, graceful prose, and nuanced analyses of the systems of oppression framing Oberon’s life offer a layered and engrossing portrait of a woman who skyrocketed to well-earned stardom while enduring the trauma of hiding her race. An extraordinary biography of an extraordinary South Asian woman.”— Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Through Mayukh Sen’s remarkable book, I discovered a brilliant, ambitious actress who could achieve visibility only by making her past invisible. After reading Love, Queenie, I hold two opposing thoughts in my mind: ‘Look how far we’ve come,’ and ‘Not much has changed.’” — Poorna Jagannathan, actress, Never Have I Ever
”The saga of Merle Oberon is one of Hollywood’s most extraordinary tales—one that has, at long last, found the right teller in Mayukh Sen, whose wonderful book is written with compassion, clear eyes, and panache.” — Michael Schulman, author of Oscar Wars
“Love, Queenie is a deeply drawn portrait of the fascinating screen star Merle Oberon. Told with empathy and rigor, it’s also a grand tour of Hollywood’s opulence and racism through the decades. A compelling story of one woman’s struggle to make a life for herself against the odds. I could not put this book down.” — Padma Lakshmi, author of Love, Loss, and What We Ate
“Love, Queenie introduced me to a star whose life story I now find extraordinary. More, this entrancing book left me reflecting on the society which compelled such a star to hide who she was all her life. An invaluable biography rich with surprises, heartbreak, and the complicated fulfillment of dreams.” — Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning
“Mayukh Sen has written a deeply sympathetic portrait of one of Hollywood’s most misunderstood figures. Love, Queenie is not only a love letter to Merle Oberon’s under appreciated filmography, but also an unflinching examination of how the era’s racial codes constricted her life, on and off the screen.” — Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll
“Merle Oberon never got to tell the true story of her life. Mayukh Sen finally has, and it rivals that of any character she played on the screen. I couldn’t put this book down.” — Carla Valderrama, author of This Was Hollywood