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Songs for Beginners
When Hannah is accused of being a lesbian, she ignores the bullies at school. She’s had bigger problems since the suicide of her dad and the breakdown of her mum. Besides, she’s the singer in a rock band, and the lads have got her back, especially guitarist Neil Harper. Hannah surprises everyone, including herself, by falling in love with her best mate and believing that she and Neil can face anything together. But grief has a way of twisting what’s left behind, and Neil recognises the truth in those rumours. Hannah leaves town in search of answers about her dad’s death and to explore the other side of her sexuality at the risk of losing Neil and the person she thought she was.
A masterpiece in coming-of-age fiction, exploration of human character, sexuality, and relationship dynamics – Claire Gallagher
”Songs for Beginners blends the messy first love of Sally Rooney’s Normal People with the eccentric, spicy secret-keeping of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. Add a passionate seventies soundtrack as in Daisy Jones & the Six (Taylor Jenkins Reid), and you get the vibe.
It’s the first in a trilogy of interconnected but standalone novels about Hannah and Neil, together and apart, spanning the 1970s to the brink of the millennium. A short story featuring characters from Songs for Beginners was featured in the Mslexia Showcase along with an author interview (issue 107).
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