The American No: Stories

by Rupert Everett

Overview

Eight glorious stories of love and loss, drama and glamour, and hope and rejection from the acclaimed actor and “supremely gifted writer” (The Sunday Times, London) Rupert Everett.

In his first, “engrossing and delightful” (Town & Country) collection of stories—drawn from the wealth of film and TV ideas Rupert Everett has worked on over the course of his illustrious career—Everett takes us on exhilarating journeys with a cast of extraordinary characters. From Oscar Wilde’s last night in Paris to the ferociously unforgiving world of a Los Angeles talent agency and beyond, these “dynamic and glib, knowing and innocent, atmospheric and frothy” (Booklist) stories will delight and surprise his many fans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668076460
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	01/20/2026
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rupert Everett shot to fame with the film Another Country in 1984 and has been a hugely successful actor and writer for many years. His films include My Best Friend’s Wedding, Shakespeare in Love, The Madness of King George, Napoleon, and much more. He is the author of two novels, three works of nonfiction, and a collection of short stories. He lives in London and New York.

Read an Excerpt

1. The American No
THE AMERICAN NO.

A phrase originally coined by a producer friend with a gallows sensibility. In show business, particularly in the world of “pitching,” here’s what happens. We achieve a meeting—no mean feat in itself—then, if we’re an actor, we “appear” in a room of executives to pitch our story. If we’re surfing in on the wave made by a successful movie, we can behave any way we like, possibly even passing out during the pitch. It will be written off as a part of our star quality—our raw talent finding its way. However, if we aren’t riding in on a hit—my lot, except for once—don’t be late. Have fun. But not too much. Be thankful. But don’t go down on all fours. Make it vivid. Be prepared for questions and qualms. Normally the meetings go well, but don’t be fooled by everyone’s casual manners or dazzling smiles. Particularly in America. There are codes of behavior in Hollywood more complex and nuanced than attempting to do business as a geisha.

“Let’s do this. I’m psyched. We love you here at Bottomy Bay Productions,” they say, walking you out, arms slung casually over your shoulder. You leave the meeting walking on air. It’s in the bag. Then you never hear another word.

It’s called the American no.

Editorial Reviews

Having surfed the ebbs and flows of showbiz for nearly five decades, Everett embraces how, for both actors and writers, rejection is part of the job.... With ingenuity, he’s turned his own rejections into inspiration with his most recent book of short stories, The American No, breathing new life into a handful of rejected star-vehicle pitches that lived on in his head.” —Vanity Fair

“This is a storyteller unafraid to spike his black comedy with sudden and strongly brewed emotion... Individually, the stories are exhilarating; together, they add up to an intriguing self-portrait of an artist at work, presenting us with the multiple facets of an undaunted imagination, recut, repolished and ready to shine in the dark.” —The Guardian

“In this collection of stories, Everett...tackles topics ranging from Oscar Wilde’s final night in Paris to the no-holds-barred world of Hollywood talent agencies, and in doing so creates engrossing and delightful worlds in which readers can get lost.” —Town & Country

“[E]legiac. . . a remarkably coherent aesthetic vision.” —The Irish Times

“Everett has a flair for historical fiction...What were once ideas for screenplays have become stories - and are all the better for the years of marinating. There is some real depth and richness here, as well as a sharp critique of the mores of La-La Land.” —Erica Wagner, Tatler

“[Everett's] resilient energy, sharp-eyed intelligence and keen sense of the ridiculous, as well as his capacity for short-term enjoyment of life's sensual pleasures, infuse his writing with a warm glow...the sheer force of his personality is irresistible and there isn't a dull moment.” —The Telegraph

“Everett’s writing is dynamic and glib, knowing and innocent, atmospheric and frothy. There is bleakness and buoyancy in the imagined worlds he conjures. If these stories were nixed by movie execs, this collection shows they are worthy of a second look. Coming soon to a theater or streaming service? A resounding yes, please!” — Booklist

“Richly imagined and extraordinarily affecting... Everett is a terrific storyteller.” —The Sunday Times

“With these astute character-driven tales, the author proves to be a storyteller of many talents. Everett’s fans have cause to celebrate.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2024-12-28
In a book of autobiographical short stories, Everett exhibits the same rakish charms as a writer that he shows as an actor but also reveals a deep streak of romanticism.

The title refers to the way film pitches are rejected in Hollywood: after loud initial enthusiasm, silence. No stranger to the phenomena, Everett blithely announces, via the narrator of “Hare Hare,” that he has turned his rejected ideas “into a book of short stories” and goes on to describe a meeting with director John Schlesinger with precision and fatalistic insouciance. While discussing a film the two were making together (presumablyThe Next Best Thing, 2000), Schlesinger dismisses Everett’s suggestion for a funeral scene, a tragicomic story Everett now tells to establish his book’s purposeful blurring of memory and invention along with its themes of exile and lost family. Even when Everett struts his signature jaded wit—particularly in a story about a band of Hollywood losers with questionable scruples whose act of creepy desperation inadvertently turns them into successful entrepreneurs shilling “deals in fertilization”—what resonates is loneliness offset by flickering moments of connection. The longer, less glibly polished stories show more sincere emotional commitment. In “The Last Rites,” based on a fictionalized combination of his great-grandmother and Margaret Wheeler, a woman who mysteriously survived India’s First War of Independence in 1857, Everett writes a poignant almost-ghost story about a British woman stuck in India in a bad marriage. The description of India is haunting, the ending strained. Similarly, Everett’s story of a shipboard romance between a British man and Greek woman emigrating to Australia after World War II combines heart-wrenching characters with an earnest, even sentimental plot. There are stories about the lives and works of two gay literary icons, Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust. Throughout, though the plots can sometimes feel contrived, Everett renders scenes in vivid, often moving detail.

Quirky, uneven, but enchanting.

Kirkus Reviews