Instant NYTimes Bestseller

The Only Woman in the Room

She possessed a stunning beauty. She also possessed a stunning mind. Could the world handle both?

Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich’s plans while at her husband’s side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis…if anyone would listen to her.

Praise

A Novelist Who’s Made a Career Writing About ‘The Only Woman in the Room’
“As a 24-year-old corporate lawyer at Skadden, Arps in New York City in the mid-1990s, Marie Benedict was often the only woman in a room full of men — an experience she has drawn on in her subsequent career as a writer of novels inspired by women whose achievements have been overlooked or underappreciated by history.”
–The New York Times

“In writing her narratively connected, fictionalized biographies, Benedict is not unlike an archaeologist digging up clues to moments of epiphany.”
–Newsweek

“The Only Woman in the Room” serves as a spotlight on how often women are omitted from historical records, despite the influence and innovations they may have been responsible for.”
–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Historical events are often told from a male point of view, but there’s a new trend where the women who were there get to tell their perspective.”
–Toronto Star

“Benedicts COMPELLING fictionalized biography pays tribute to the overlooked scientific contribution and the hidden depths of a stunning beauty and beloved movie star of superior intelligence and never through and IRRESISTIBLE COMBINATION of Hollywood glamour and international intrigue.”
–Booklist

“Benedict paints a shining portrait of a complicated woman… READERS WILL BE ENTHRALLED.”
–Publishers Weekly

“A ready-made THRILLER as well as a FEMINIST PARABLE…”
–New York Times

“A spotlight on how often women are omitted from historical records despite (their) influence and innovations… this succeeds as a novel about a woman’s search for peace with herself but also as an imagined glimpse of a decade in the life of a movie star whose contributions to the world are still felt today.”
–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“One of the best books of the week.”
–New York Post

“One of the BEST woman’s fiction of 2019…”
–Marie Claire Magazine

“The next book you won’t be able to put down.”
–Pop Sugar

“One of the Smithsonian Institution Scholars’ Favorite Books of 2019”
–Smithsonian Magazine