“When I’m asked to describe what Thirst for Salt is about, I often say simply that it’s a love story because I believe that love stories, like love songs, can act as vessels for our deeper existential longings.”
Category: Author Playlists
“Over the last decade spent writing Only and Ever This, these songs were how I managed to quiet the thoughts in my head for long enough to let another story exist, a story of a mother who is a ghost, a father who is a pirate, and sons who trundle down a complex of caves, the story of mummifying twin boys so that they won’t grow up.”
“In The Unfortunates, music is everywhere, appearing in Sahara’s playlists, song parodies, and track titles. Music helped me discover the novel’s experimental form, and when I needed to jog my memories, it transported me back to 2013, the year of the novel’s setting.”
“My novel Always Crashing in the Same Car imagines those last few months Bowie lived, working on his amazing final album Blackstar, even as it washes back and forth across his kaleidoscopically costumed life.”
“I wanted my book to be atmospheric—the Cold War is as much a mood as anything else. The tracks below are connected to Atomic Family in terms of both theme and ambiance. Some more overtly than others.”
“The coaches and athletes in my novel Bark On are charged off of noise rock and plucky folk guitars.”
“My memoir The Absent Moon intertwines my family’s story with the story of my bipolar disorder and my love for books and music.”
“While writing, I often listened to the music that is in the book and shapes certain scenes, but I also imagined the kinds of music these two women would fight about in the car while they drove from town to town looking for a place to call home.”
“Music runs throughout these essays, but the songs that became my writing anthems don’t actually appear in the book.”
“…music is often an inspiration to me as a writer, one more form of research to help slip into the lives of my characters…”