With Daisy Jones and the Six being the hot new adapted-from-a-novel TV series about to launch this week, everyone is talking about rock music fiction at the moment. As long there has been rock music, there have been rock music novels, from the birth of the genre in the 1950’s, through the swinging 60’s, wild 70’s, glossy 80’s and right up to our social media accessible stars of today. We’ve put together a list of rock music novels from the past few years, and whether you’re into a murder mystery, some steamy romance or a heartfelt tale of friendship, there’s something for everyone.
Utopia Avenue / Mitchell, David
“Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967 and fronted by folksinger Elf Holloway, guitar demigod Jasper de Zoet and blues bassist Dean Moss, Utopia Avenue released only two LPs during its brief and blazing journey from the clubs of Soho and draughty ballrooms to Top of the Pops and the cusp of chart success, to glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome and a fateful American fortnight in the autumn of 1968. David Mitchell’s new novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue; of riots in the streets and revolutions in the head; of drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The final revival of Opal & Nev : a novel / Walton, Dawnie
“Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job–despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The Lucifer chord / Cottam, Francis
“Researcher Ruthie Gillespie has undertaken a commission to write an essay on Martin Mear, lead singer and guitarist with Ghost Legion, the biggest, most decadent rock band on the planet, before he disappeared without trace in 1975. Her mission is to separate man from myth – but it’s proving difficult, as a series of increasingly disturbing and macabre incidents threatens to derail Ruthie’s efforts to uncover the truth about the mysterious rock star.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Nietzsche and The Burbs : a novel / Iyer, Lars
“When a new student transfers in from a posh private school, he falls in with a group of like-minded suburban stoners, artists, and outcasts–too smart and creative for their own good. His classmates nickname their new friend Nietzsche (for his braininess and bleak outlook on life), and decide he must be the front man of their metal band, now christened Nietzsche and the Burbs. And as they ponder life’s biggies, this sly, elegant, and often laugh-out-loud funny story of would-be rebels becomes something special: an absorbing and stirring reminder of a particular, exciting yet bittersweet moment in life…and a reminder that all adolescents are philosophers, and all philosophers are adolescents at heart.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The age of anxiety / Townshend, Pete
“A former rock star disappears on the Cumberland moors. When his wife finds him, she discovers he has become a hermit and a painter of apocalyptic visions. A beautiful Irish girl, who has stabbed her father to death is determined to seduce her best friend’s husband. A young composer begins to experience aural hallucinations, expressions of the fear and anxiety of the people of London. He constructs a maze in his back garden. Driven by passion and musical ambition, events spiral out of control-good drugs and bad drugs, loves lost and found, families broken apart and reunited. Conceived jointly as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Groupies : a novel / Priscus, Sarah
“It’s 1977, and Faun Novak is in love with rock ‘n’ roll. Except it’s not just the band she can’t get enough of. It’s also the proud groupies who support them in myriad ways. Faun obsessively photographs every aspect of this dazzling new world, struggling to balance her artistic ambitions with the band’s expectations. As her confidence grows for the first time in her life, her priorities shift. But just as everything is going great and her boring, old life is falling away, Faun realizes just how blind she has been to the darkest corners of this glamorous musical dreamland as the summer heats up and everything spirals out of control.”(Adapted from Catalogue)
The spectacular : a novel / Whittall, Zoe
“It’s 1997 and Missy’s band has finally hit the big time as they tour across America. At twenty-two years old, Missy gets on stage every night and plays the song about her absent mother that made the band famous. Fortysomething Carola is just surfacing from a sex scandal at the yoga center where she has been living when she sees her daughter, Missy, for the first time in ten years–on the cover of a music magazine. Ruth is eighty-three and planning her return to the Turkish seaside village where she spent her childhood. In this sharply observed novel, Zoe Whittall captures three very different women who struggle to build an authentic life.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Evening’s empire / Flanagan, Bill
“The Year Is 1967. In England, and around the world, rock music is exploding — the Beatles have gone psychedelic, the Stones are singing “Ruby Tuesday,” and the summer of love is approaching. For Jack Flynn, a newly minted young solicitor at a conservative firm, the rock world is of little interest — until he is asked to handle the legal affairs of Emerson Cutler, the seductive front man for an up-and-coming group of British boys with a sound that could take them all the way. Spanning the decades and their shifting ideologies, from the wild abandon of the sixties to the cold realities of the twenty-first century, Evening’s Empire is filled with surprising, sharply funny, and perceptive riffs on fame, culture, and world events.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The idea of you / Lee, Robinne
“Solène Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles, is reluctant to take her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favorite boy band. The last thing Solène expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. When Solène and Hayes’ romance becomes a viral sensation, and both she and her daughter become the target of rabid fans and an insatiable media, Solène must face how her romantic life has impacted the lives of those she cares about most.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Can’t look away / Lovering, Carola
“In 2013, twenty-three-year old Molly Diamond is a barista, dreaming of becoming a writer. One night at a concert in East Williamsburg, she locks eyes with the lead singer, Jake Danner, and can’t look away. Molly and Jake fall quickly and deeply in love, especially after he writes a hit song about her that puts his band on the map. Nearly a decade later, Molly has given up writing and is living in Flynn Cove, Connecticut with her young daughter and her husband Hunter-who is decidedly not Jake Danner. Meanwhile, a new version of Jake’s hit song is on the radio, forcing Molly to confront her past and ask the ultimate questions: What happens when life turns out nothing like we thought it would, when we were young and dreaming big?” (Adapted from Catalogue)
No one left to come looking for you : a novel / Lipsyte, Sam
“Manhattan’s East Village, 1993. Dive bars, DIY music venues, shady weirdos, and hard drugs are plentiful. Just a few days before his band’s biggest gig, their lead singer goes missing with Jack’s prized bass, presumably to hock it to feed his junk habit. Jack’s search for his buddy uncovers a sinister entanglement of crimes tied to local real estate barons looking to remake New York City, and who might also be connected to the recent death of Jack’s punk rock mentor.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
And just in case you haven’t yet read it yet…
Daisy Jones & the Six / Reid, Taylor Jenkins
“Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six. They sold out arenas from coast to coast. Their music defined an era and every girl in America idolised Daisy. But on July 12 1979, on the night of the final concert of the Aurora tour, they split. Nobody ever knew why. Until now. This is the whole story, right from the beginning – the sun-bleached streets, the grimy bars on the Sunset Strip, knowing Daisy’s moment was coming. It’s a true story, though everyone remembers the truth differently.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
