A Stranger in the Mirror

Infobox Book
name = A Stranger in the Mirror
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translator =


image_caption =
author = Sidney Sheldon
illustrator =
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country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = William Morrow
release_date = 1976
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 322 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-688-03196-X
preceded_by =
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"A Stranger in the Mirror" is a 1976 novel by Sidney Sheldon.

Plot summary

This book is about the lives of two people- Toby Temple and Jill Castle. Toby Temple, nurtured by his strict mother has always dreamt of only making his mother happy and finds that the only way to make his mother happy is to imitate others and thus the dream of becoming a film star dawns on him and his mother. And at one point of his life he is forced to leave his mother for his own safety (after getting the daughter of a local policeman pregnant) and he goes to Hollywood with huge dreams of becoming a star. But he struggles a lot and somehow gets himself admitted into an acting school and in course of time becomes a huge celebrity and a master of seducing women.

Meanwhile the story moves towards Josephine , born to a seamstress in Texas. Josephine has been suffering form a very bad childhood. After a few years Josephine grows to be strikingly beautiful and falls in love with the town's richest most eligible bachelor David, but he is forced to marry another girl because of his sick and dominating mother and also because of his unpleasant history. A depressed Josephine then decides to run away from her place and changes her name as Jill Castle and tries her luck at Hollywood. There again she becomes the victim of many cruel men and then she realises that she can retain herself in cinema field only through her body and then she buys many small roles in films and advertisements with her body .

The story speeds up when both these characters meet for a shooting and Toby falls for her and fails in seducing her and eventually falls in love with her and discovers a new great feeling which he has never experienced with any other woman and his feelings toward her intensifies. And also Jill falls for him in spite of the 20 years gap between them and they marry and lead a very happy life and Jill becomes a very dominating women in the film industry and takes revenge against everyone who victimised her and she becomes the world for Toby. Then Toby falls very sick and becomes paralysed and when the whole world thinks that he is gone forever, she struggles a lot and makes him more active by pouring all her care and love on him. By the time Toby comes to life again, Jill becomes very weak and when Toby comes on the screen again the world rejoices his re-entry and proclaims their love to be the love of the century. And again Toby falls sick and at this time Jill also feels very weak to again bring him back and meets her first love David who becomes a divorcee and again the romance between them ignites and she couldn't resist Toby's sickness and hence she murders him and the world believes that his death was accidental and then Jills joins David in a cruise to marry him where an old enemy of Jill reveals to David her secret history and then he leaves Jill depressed and then Jill joins Toby in his land of heaven. The story wonderfully portrays the emotions of humans and how they become victims of time.

References

* [http://www.twbookmark.com/features/sidneysheldon/shelf.html SidneySheldon.com | Bookshelf]