Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov

Often thought of as a precursor to Lolita, Laughter in the Dark introduces the reader to Albinus, a respectable, middle-aged man and aspiring filmmaker who abandons his wife for a lover half his age: Margot, who wants to become a movie star herself. When Albinus crosses paths with an American movie producer, disaster ensues. What emerges is an elegantly sardonic and irresistibly ironic novel of desire, deceit, and deception, a curious romance set in the film world of Weimar-era Berlin in the 1930s. New Directions paperback in great condition.