The Music Shop
An uplifting, heart-warming love story from the Sunday Times bestselling author
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4.4 • 131 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'Warm-hearted, unusual, romantic with a sense of hope' The Times
'A beautiful novel, a tonic for the soul and a complete joy to read.' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
A story of love, community and how music can bring us back to life from the worldwide bestseller of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
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1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.
Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind...
'Hits all the right notes...a love story that's as much about the silences between words as what is said - the spaces between people that can be filled with mystery, confusion and misunderstanding as well as hope.' Observer
Readers are falling in love with The Music Shop:
***** 'Joyous and perfectly done'
***** 'A beautifully crafted love story. It will make you laugh and cry'
***** 'I totally fell in love with every character in this book'
RACHEL JOYCE'S NEW NOVEL, MISS BENSON'S BEETLE, IS OUT NOW
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
I just loved it!
Like the best hot chocolate you’ve ever had - warm and delicious and food for the soul.
Wonderful read
This book really captures the history and magic of music on vinyl and those people who love it. A great story with a nostalgic look at a time before downloads, when an album was a possession not a computerised file. David Moffitt