The Music Shop

August 1, 2017

Best-selling author Joyce first boomed big with the Man Booker long-listed The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which was swiftly followed by the LibraryReads pick The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. Set in 1988, her new title features record store owner Frank, who can find exactly the record each customer needs among vinyl-only merchandise ranging from classical to punk. Quiet and questing, Ilse Brauchmann is a different sort of customer altogether; she wants Frank to tell her about music itself.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 13, 2017
Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) has a winner in this deceptively simple love story about Frank, owner of a London hole-in-the-wall music store selling vinyl records in 1988. Adamant about not selling cassette tapes or CDs, Frank is a loner raised by an eccentric but loving mother who taught him to cherish all kinds of music. His extraordinary gift is knowing the precise song people need to hear at a particular time in their lives, and his musical selections have miraculous results. Frank’s small circle of friends own shops on this out-of-the-way street: Maud, who secretly pines for Frank, has a tattoo parlor; ex-priest Father Anthony sells religious artifacts; the twin Williams brothers run a family funeral business. Frank’s life is upturned when a mysterious stranger, Ilse Brauchmann, appears outside his store and promptly faints. The magical trajectory of Frank and Ilse’s relationship is nicely balanced against the thread about a threatening real estate company that wants to destroy Frank’s tiny store. Joyce’s odes to music—from Aretha Franklin and J.S. Bach to Puccini and the Sex Pistols—and the notion that the perfect song can transform one’s life make this novel a triumph.

November 1, 2017
Stocking only vinyl in his London music shop, Frank Adair has the ability to select the perfect song to ease each customer's spiritual crisis.The son of a music-obsessed mother, Frank grew up learning about Beethoven's silences, Vivaldi's funeral, Bach's eyes, and Miles Davis' sly sense of humor. By the time he was a teen, he was teaching his mother, Peg, about Joao Gilberto, Joni Mitchell, and Van Morrison. After Peg's death, Frank opens his store in a small cluster of shops. Defying land developers and CD-pushing record reps, Frank eschews alphabetical and genre-based organizational systems in favor of delightfully placing Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," ABC's "The Lexicon of Love," and Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" in the same bin--after all, each is a concept album. He's a musical therapist, dosing heartache with Aretha Franklin and fussy babies with the Troggs. With his exuberant assistant manager, Kit, and fellow shopkeepers--including Maud, the tattoo artist; Mr. Novak, the baker; the Williams brothers, funeral directors; and Father Anthon, who has left the church to run a religious souvenir shop--Frank is part of a cozy, quirky community, well-insulated from the risks of falling in love...until Ilse Brauchmann faints in front of his store. Immediately smitten with each other, Ilse and Frank realize they are star-crossed when Ilse admits not only that she has a fiance, but also--even worse--she doesn't listen to music. Yet she asks Frank to describe music to her; thus begins a journey into the emotional terrain charted by "The Moonlight Sonata," "Ain't it Funky Now, Parts 1 and 2," and even "God Save the Queen," the Sex Pistols' version. Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, 2016, etc.) sets up a charming cast of characters, and her spirals into the sonic landscapes of brilliant musicians are delightful, casting a vivid backdrop for the quietly desperate romance between Frank and Ilse.From nocturnes to punk, this musical romance is ripe for filming.

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December 1, 2017

In 1988, shop owner Frank is a kind of vinyl-only music whisperer. People come into his store and tell him their troubles. He listens and sends them into one of his homemade listening booths to hear just the right track (jazz, rock, classical) that cures what ails them. Frank and his fellow business owners, a close-knit, ragtag group hanging on in their cul-de-sac to a vanishing way of life, are being pressured by developers to sell and get out. Then Ilsa Brauchmann literally falls into their lives when she passes out in front of the music shop. These gentle, damaged people find common ground in the weekly lessons about music Frank gives to Ilsa, and there's instant attraction, as his boundless knowledge of music both charms and terrifies her. Misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and a catastrophic accident threaten the fragile bonds that begin to draw them together. VERDICT Joyce, a British actress and playwright, whose first novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, was longlisted for the Man Booker, continues to enchant and break hearts with her lovable misfits trying to survive in a modern world determined to pass them by. Irresistible. [See Prepub Alert, 7/3/17.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.