Anita de Monte Laughs Last

"This novel, centered on two women artists navigating ambition and identity, fits Reese Witherspoon's interest in showcasing women-led stories. It aligns with Hello Sunshine's mission to elevate narratives by and about women."

"The perils of a woman’s success exceeding her partner’s is a perennial obsession of culture. The message: When one star rises, another falters. And if a wife’s star eclipses her husband’s, trouble follows. In Xochitl Gonzalez’s engrossing art world drama, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, relationships are complicated by such power imbalances. The title character is the wife of a famous artist and a forgotten Latina painter whose death was either a tragic accident or a gross act of violence. Raquel Toro is a first-generation college student of Puerto Rican descent at Brown University who’s navigating her own treacherous waters and becomes obsessed with de Monte. Through their experiences, the book explores questions of race, class and privilege in the rarified environs of art and the Ivy League."