The Year the Music Changed

It is 1955. Achsa is a lonely, passionate and precocious fourteen-year-old. Isolated at school by her intelligence and disfigurement, 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 20-year-old country singer named Elvis Presley, she fires off a fan letter, telling him she knows he's going to be a star.


Genre: Literary Fiction

"A must-read, fresh, surprising, full-hearted, joyful and sad.... If novels could sport bumper stickers, this one would read 'Love Me Tender'-and everyone would." - Fred Chappell