The actress granddaughter of iconic author Ernest Hemingway is following in her famous relative's footsteps by writing a memoir and her first young adult novel.

Mariel Hemingway, 53, has landed a publishing deal with Regan Arts to lay bare her life story in Out Came the Sun: Overcoming the Legacy of Mental Illness, Addiction, and Suicide In My Family, which will document the pain of her personal life after seven members of her family, over four generations, took their own lives.

For Whom the Bell Tolls author Ernest Hemingway famously ended his own life in 1961, aged 61.

The Manhattan star will also reveal "never-before-told stories" about other aspects of her life and career.

She is also working on a fiction story, titled Invisible Girl, which will be loosely based on her own childhood.

The books are expected to hit retailers in April (15).