Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
A Novel
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Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
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Narrated by:
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Nicole Lewis
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Written by:
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Laura Warrell
About this listen
GMA BUZZ PICK • How do we find belonging when love is unrequited? A "gorgeously written debut" (Celeste Ng, best-selling author of Little Fires Everywhere) filled with jazz and soul, about the perennial temptations of dangerous love, told by the women who love Circus Palmer—trumpet player and old-school ladies’ man—as they ultimately discover the power of their own voices.
“Elegant, unexpected and…unforgettable.”—New York Times Book Review
“A modern masterpiece.”—Jason Reynolds, best-selling author of Look Both Ways
It’s 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies’ man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life.
Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus. Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation.
©2022 Laura Warrell (P)2022 Random House AudioWhat the critics say
PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST• GMA BUZZ PICK • AN OPRAH DAILY FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A PEOPLE MUST READ • A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE NOMINEE • GOLDEN POPPY BOOK AWARD FINALIST
A Most Anticipated Book: The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, PEOPLE, The Millions, Literary Hub, The Root, Apartment Therapy, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oprah Daily •
“Soulful . . . Structured like a jam session, the novel favors a series of riffs over any one melodic theme. Warrell gives a supporting cast of women their own solos, through close-third-person chapters that detail their entanglements with the elusive Circus . . . Elegant, unexpected and wrenching as the “fierce” sounds that emerge from Circus’s trumpet . . . Unforgettable.”—Lauren Christensen, New York Times Book Review
“[An] emerging literary superstar . . . Warrell writes a mean bad boy! This sensual and sensuous debut is a kaleidoscopic character study, a polyphonic riff on the modern-day Casanova from the perspectives of the myriad women in his wake. Both visceral and finely observed, the novel captures social nuance and emotional wreckage with precision and compassion.”—Oprah Daily, “30 of the Best Fall Fiction Books of 2022 to Cuddle Up With”
"Soulful and gripping . . . In her debut novel, Warrell assembles a lush orchestra of female voices to sing a story about passion and risk, fathers and daughters and the missed opportunities of unrequited love."—The Millions