Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Historical adventure fiction

FROG MUSIC

Emma Donoghue

In FROG MUSIC, Donoghue combines the heart-wrenching and compulsive storytelling of Room with the vivid historical drama of Astray and Slammerkin in a novel based on the still-unsolved 1870s San Francisco murder of one Jenny Bonnet.

It is summer 1876 and San Francisco is plagued by a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic that has quarantined parts of the city. Jenny Bonnet is shot dead through the window of a railroad boardinghouse while her friend stands by, helpless. The survivor, Blanche Beunon, is a young French burlesque dancer and prostitute who came to California with her charismatic lover/pimp and his best friend. But their bohemian ménage has been unraveling for the past month, ever since they encountered Jenny, a magnificently bizarre, pants-clad young woman on a bicycle. In the wake of the shooting, Blanche transports us through a world filled with desperate paupers, jealous men, and damaged children. She will question all her past choices and risk all she has left to get justice for her dead friend—if the killer doesn’t track her down first.

FROG MUSIC is a cinematic literary thriller, full of songs and folk tunes that transport the reader across the world. Emma Donoghue’s lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes uniquely captures the pulse of the booming American West. The pre-publication praise we have received is absolutely amazing, but not at all surprising giving Emma’s literary gifts!

Available products
Book Published 2014-04-01 by Little Brown
Book Published 2014-04-01 by Little Brown

Comments

Donoghue’s signature talent for setting tone and mood elevates the book from common cliffhanger to a true chef d’oeuvre.”

“Donoghue proves herself endlessly inventive….[She] nails both the period details and the atmosphere—think sweltering heat waves, dumping grounds for unwanted babies, and smallpox epidemics. This is the kind of book that will keep you up at night and make you smarter.”

“Donoghue flawlessly combines literary eloquence and vigorous plotting in her first full-fledged mystery, a work as original and multifaceted as its young murder victim.”

“Readers won’t quickly forget this rollicking, fast-paced novel, which is based on a true story and displays fine bits of humor with underlying themes of female autonomy and the right to own one’s sexual identity.”

Donoghue shows more than range with FROG MUSIC—she shows genius. Like and unlike her stunning ROOM, this novel lifts into view a strange crime, a remarkable woman, and is a Ringling Brothers–grade feat of narrative strength.…Blanche and Jenny are characters you will never forget, filmed in vibrant, cinemascope prose, and they mark Emma Donoghue’s greatest achievement yet.