Beautiful Music

“How do we find soul-saving comfort in moments when deep personal loneliness coincides with a world gone increasingly mad? This question is at the heart of *Beautiful Music*, Michael Zadoorian’s funny and melancholic novel that navigates the haunted history of the Rust Belt. Zadoorian shows how music has kept the region’s heart beating—especially Detroit’s—even in the most crushing and confusing of times.”

**—Dean Bakopoulos**, author of * **Summerlong** *

“The story of *Beautiful Music* is painted with rich, exquisite detail and all the painful hyperawareness of growing up in a culture of mixed signals, confusion, and loss. Salvation comes through music. A miraculous safe place in which to belong.”

**—Nancy Wilson**, singer/guitarist, **Heart**

“Like Nick Hornby or the great Nick Tosches, Michael Zadoorian is the rare novelist whose prose crackles with the energy of the best rock ‘n’ roll. *Beautiful Music* is a beautiful bildungsroman that does the sounds and spirit of his beloved Detroit proud.”

**—Jim DeRogatis**, cohost of **Sound Opinions**; author of * **Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs** *

“Popping with Detroit cultural landmarks, *Beautiful Music* wraps a disturbing yet humorous tale of beleaguered adolescence in 1970s Motor City around the A-list rock music that made the dingy landscape an aural playground.”

**—Steve Miller**, author of * **Detroit Rock City** *

“Like a song you can’t stop playing, *Beautiful Music* casts a spell on your heart. With clarity andtenderness, Zadoorian sweeps us into a life that we recognize as our own. Remember when you were lonely, scared, unsure, and then somehow found your own kind of bravery and actual, genuine joy? *Beautiful Music* will take you there—and give you the soundtrack to get you through.”

**—Scott Sparling**, author of * **Wire to Wire** *

Set in early 1970s Detroit, a racially divided city still reeling from its violent riot of 1967, *Beautiful Music* is the story of one young man’s transformation through music. Danny Yzemski is a husky, pop radio–loving loner balancing a dysfunctional home life with the sudden harsh realities of freshman year at a high school marked by racial turbulence.

But after tragedy strikes the family, Danny’s mother becomes increasingly erratic and angry about the seismic cultural shifts unfolding in her city and the world. As she tries to hold it together with the help of Librium, highballs, and breakfast cereal, Danny finds his own reason to carry on: rock ‘n’ roll. In particular, the drum and guitar–heavy songs of local legends like the MC5 and Iggy Pop. In the vein of Nick Hornby and Tobias Wolff, yet with a style very much Zadoorian’s own, *Beautiful Music* is a touching story about the power of music and its ability to save one’s soul.