The Cover Girl

In Rossi’s alluring debut, an aging former fashion model reflects on her career and her troubling relationship with an older rock star when she was in her teens in the 1970s. Harriet Goldman, a modeling agent with an eye for young talent, discovers Birdie when she’s 13. Birdie enjoys a few years of success, including her first runway show, and at age 15 she poses for the cover of an album by a famous rocker in his 30s. They have sex, and he convinces her parents to sign over custody so he can bring Birdie on tour. During their four years together, Birdie fails to become the breakout star Harriet promised she would be, and instead is relegated to catalog work and shoots where she’s seen merely as a pair of legs. In a parallel narrative set in 2018, Birdie grapples with an invitation to a gala celebrating Harriet’s long career and considers talking to a journalist for a story, all of which causes her to take a fresh look at the past from the perspective of the #MeToo-era. As Birdie reevaluates her relationships with the rock star and Harriet, the book rides the razor’s edge of dramatic irony. Readers will root for Rossi’s searching protagonist as she finds her strength. Agent: Penelope Burns, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Aug.)