Oprah Winfrey has named “Beautiful Music,” the new novel from Ferndale-based writer Michael Zadoorian, a recent guest on the Daily Detroit Happy Hour podcast, to her Top Books of Summer list for 2018.
On the Happy Hour, Zadoorian spoke about his previous novel, “The Leisure Seeker,” which was turned into a feature-length movie starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. He also spoke about “Beautiful Music” ahead of its official May 1 release from Akashic Books.
The book takes place in early 1970s Detroit and focuses on a teenager named Danny Yzemski.
“He’s just this timid loner kid and the suddenly, he’s kind of thrust into this high school where there’s a lot of racial turbulence,” Zadoorian says. “It’s just a few years after the summer of ’67, all the unrest. Stuff is happening, things are still percolating in Detroit… his high school’s changing, his neighborhood is changing, he physically is changing and at the same time, his home life kind of implodes, too. It’s very much about music, how it becomes his sanctuary and how it becomes a safe place for him to live.”
Here’s how Oprah.com describes the book:
“Danny Yzemski tunes out a dysfunctional family with Frank Zappa and Iggy Pop, shaking his countercultural fist at The Man in this eight-track flashback of a novel set in 1970s Detroit.”
“Beautiful Music” is available now. You can listen to our interview with him on the Daily Detroit Happy Hour podcast in the player above or on Apple Podcasts.