Description
Book SynopsisIt is 1955. Achsa is a lonely, passionate, and precocious fourteen-year-old. Isolated at school by her intelligence and disfigurement, and troubled at home by the undercurrents in her parents’ relationship, she finds comfort and inspiration in the tunes and rhythms she hears on her radio. Hearing a recording by an unknown twenty-year-old country singer named Elvis Presley, she fires off a fan letter, telling him she knows he’s going to be a star.
Trade Review“The Year the Music Changed may engrave itself into the memories of more readers than To Kill a Mockingbird…[It’s] the most satisfying novel I’ve read in many years.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Warm, lively, and immensely readable.” —Publishers Weekly “Sweet and gripping…A touching coming-of-age tale.” —Kirkus Reviews “A touching, funny, tender exchange between two people trying to find their way through thorny emotional terrain. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review) “I think it’s terrific.” —Pat Conroy, bestselling author “A nearly impossible feat of the creative imagination, defying the stigma of epistolary fiction and, better, defying the overpowering cliché of Elvis Presley.” —Raleigh News-Observer “Does the world need another book about Elvis? Maybe so, if it’s as good as The Year the Music Changed. Thomas pulls off the novel with panache.” —Columbus Dispatch
