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When We Were Brilliant
  • Published: 17 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9780593815854
  • Imprint: Berkley
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $70.00

When We Were Brilliant

  • Lynn Cullen
Formats & editions
Audiobook
20 Jan 2026
Hardback
17 Feb 2026
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They were an unlikely pair—a blond bombshell and a photographer determined to be taken seriously—but Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold would make a deal that would change their lives in this dazzling new novel from the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure.

They were an unlikely pair—a blond bombshell and a photographer determined to be taken seriously—but Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold would make a deal that would change their lives in this dazzling new novel from the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure.

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.

A lavish and transporting novel, When We Were Brilliant captures the halcyon days of an icon and the grit of women determining their own futures as it explores the exceptional and complicated friendship between Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold.
  • Published: 17 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9780593815854
  • Imprint: Berkley
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $70.00
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Praise for When We Were Brilliant

PRAISE FOR THE WOMAN WITH THE CURE

“Huge applause to The Woman with the Cure…for reminding us that women have always been in science—despite those who would pretend otherwise.”
—Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

 “A rewarding read that both enlightens and entertains.”
—Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman with the Blue Star

“With emotional honesty and prose that rings with lyrical detail, The Woman with the Cure is an enlightening and immersive read.”
—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis

PRAISE FOR THE WOMAN WITH THE CURE

“Huge applause to The Woman with the Cure…for reminding us that women have always been in science—despite those who would pretend otherwise.”
—Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

 “A rewarding read that both enlightens and entertains.”
—Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman with the Blue Star

“With emotional honesty and prose that rings with lyrical detail, The Woman with the Cure is an enlightening and immersive read.”
—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis