The Music Shop
The Music Shop
paperback
Published:
22 March, 2018
Description
From the author of the world-wide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry:
' A beautiful novel, a tonic for the soul and a complete joy to read.' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.
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
RACHEL JOYCE'S NEW NOVEL, THE HOMEMADE GOD, IS OUT NOW.
Rachel Joyce, Sunday Times bestseller, May 2025
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780552779456 |
| ISBN10 | 0552779458 |
| Number Of Pages | 368 |
| Item Weight | 256 g |
| Product Dimensions | 128 x 197 x 26 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Rachel Joyce tells wonderful stories. In her hands, ordinary lives are given dignity and triumph. She is a champion of humanity, and The Music Shop is no exception. It is a joyous love song that pulses with hope and benevolence and laughter. -- Sarah Winman, author of When God Was a Rabbit and Tin Man
Her speciality is writing with empathy on the quirkier aspects of life...[The Music Shop] has the feel of a summer hit: warm-hearted, unusual and romantic, with a sense of hope pervading all manner of misfortunes...
Joyce's gift is in using simple language to convey profound observations on human nature.
The Music Shop is wonderful - a tender and moving love story which captures brilliantly the healing, redemptive power of music and its ability to console, empower and reassure. I adored it. -- Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us
Rachel Joyce hits all the right notes with her love letter to vinyl… This is the most beautiful ode to music, community and love, that overflows with charm and warmth. -- Jane Craddock * The Sun *
[Joyce] writes with unquestionable charm and and with her considerable heart never far from her sleeve.
Joyce's charm and good-heartedness remain undiminished, as does her ability to create a highly appealing, semi-magical world... and to make us root for her characters all the way.
Rachel Joyce deploys all her trademark charm… on a journey of redemption, of confronting the demons from the past and of healing. * Stylist *
I love any novel by Rachel Joyce, whose The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was a huge success. Now she has created another Pied Piper of the heart in Frank, the proprietor of the music shop. Frank's individually chosen records can heal the soul - and this bewitching love story sings out the unique beauty of every human being, leaving you uplifted. -- Bel Mooney
A beautiful novel, a tonic for the soul and a complete joy to read. -- Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
Nobody writes with quite that mixture of clear eyed humanity and downright authorial mischief that Rachel Joyce brings to The Music Shop -- Patrick Gale * twitter *
The Music Shop tells us that our drum beats may well be different, but we can still dance to a harmonious and funky rhythm.
Rachel Joyce is a genius with words and full of soul. This is another uplifting and utterly heart-enlarging novel.
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University. Rachel has written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family near Stroud.