In the middle of an otherwise nondescript play in a "twelve-dollar-a-seat" downtown warehouse theater, an actress is staggered by a violent slap in the face from her co-star. As she gazes into the audience with a bloody nose, immediately a connection is formed with a middle-aged man, drawn in by this unmistakably over-the-line violence, seated in the eighth row. Almost against his will, with disconcerting speed and a hypnotic power that unearths buried memories from their haunted pasts, her life will invade his own. With its nuanced and compelling story of love and discovery, a plot as intricate and absorbing as a thriller, and continually startling literary innovations and lucid, omnidirectional prose, Actress in the House is a haunting and resonant reading experience from one of the most acclaimed voices in contemporary fiction.