Adriana Trigiani’s 16th novel opens in October 2000 with a young artist, Roxanne Chetta, explaining the huge mural she has created entitled The Call of the Wild. Her audience is an 80-year-old nun, Sister Agnes, who recognizes in the painting the presence of adventure, mayhem, mirth, romance and, most vibrantly, sex. Moreover, she identifies the movie stars who mattered in that film: Clark Gable and Loretta Young.

Very quickly, Trigiani moves the story 90 years earlier to 1917 and introduces one of the storytellers, Alda Ducci, an Italian immigrant who has been dismissed from being a novice at Saint Elizabeth’s Infant Hospital, a home for unwed mothers in San Francisco. Alda’s heart will not toughen up, she is told by the Mother Superior, and she is in danger of losing hope if she stays in the novitiate. Her new position will be in a fine, devout Catholic family in Beverly Hills as secretary to one of the daughters, Gretchen Young, whose screen name is Loretta Young. Alda has been in the convent for six years, but has seen pictures of the glamorous actress in fan magazines the young girls shared with one another while waiting for their babies.

"ALL THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS pays tribute to the incredible glamour and delicious behind-the-scenes intrigue of the early days of American filmmaking."

Alda has little choice but to leave, and in a day’s time her life is transformed. She becomes Loretta Young’s personal secretary and goes to Columbia Studio where Young is filming Man’s Castle with Spencer Tracy. Despite being only 22, Young has made 50 movies and commands respect and attention in the world of Hollywood. Because of her discretion, intelligence and kindness, Alda becomes indispensible to Young. The secretary carefully details how the beautiful star falls in love with the married Tracy; she personally burns the drafts of the letter that Young sends Tracy when she breaks off the relatively innocent affair.

The heart of the novel, however, concerns the passionate relationship between Loretta Young and Clark Gable, who were co-stars in The Call of the Wild. The film was shot on Mount Baker, Washington, during seven bitterly cold weeks in the winter of 1935, and the enforced isolation brought out the best and worst of the movie crew. By creating scenes of humor, danger and, of course, passion, Trigiani gives life to their love. After the filming was completed and the movie successful, Young and Gable re-enter the Hollywood world of closely watched celebrities and struggle to keep their affair secret. Gable’s second wife, who was both jealous and smart, refuses to grant him a divorce, while attempting again and again to shame Young.

Alda narrates as she and Young travel the following months to a village in Italy for a highly suspect “rest cure.” Both have much to learn about affairs of the heart. The remainder of the novel moves quickly through the years while dealing with the aftermath of the affair. The deeply religious Young despairs of the mistakes she has made, yet she continued to be a remarkably innovative and powerful force in the male world of film, radio and television.

Faithfully following many factual events of 1930s Hollywood, Trigiani writes imagined conversations and scenes, fleshing out well-known celebrities such as David Niven, Hattie McDaniel and Jack Oakie. Additionally, she details Young’s dyslexia, Gable’s famous sex appeal, and Tracy’s Everyman persona despite his star status. The final pages return us to October 2000 shortly after Loretta Young’s death, and the last piece of the story is told.

ALL THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS pays tribute to the incredible glamour and delicious behind-the-scenes intrigue of the early days of American filmmaking.