Romance tests friendship in Brooklynite’s debut novel
Brooklyn BookBeat: Author to read in Greenpoint on Aug. 8
“This is a story about love, but not the kind of love you think. You’ll see,” explains the narrator of Sarah McCarry’s new novel “All Our Pretty Songs” (St. Martin’s Griffin; July 30). The Brooklyn-based author’s debut novel, set in the Pacific Northwest, is the enchanting beginning of a trilogy about two teenage girls who are inseparable. They’ve grown up together, both without fathers, and though dissimilar in many ways – Aurora an outgoing beauty and the narrator an utterly devoted, more introverted friend – the girls share a sisterly bond.
Their relationship has always been easy, but is tested for the first time when Jack, a charismatic musician, alters the dynamic. The girls struggle to address the emerging tension between them, but what they don’t realize is that Jack’s music has complicated a world beyond their own.
Melding reality and fantasy, McCarry has crafted a beautifully haunting story that depicts the nuances of both love and friendship. The author will appear in Brooklyn for a reading on August 8 at Greenpoint’s WORD Bookstore.