Michael Zadoorian is the author of the critically praised The Leisure Seeker–now a film starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, released by Sony Pictures Classics this year. His other books are Second Hand: A Novel, and the story collection The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit. His fiction has appeared in the Literary Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, American Short Fiction, Witness, Great Lakes Review, and the North American Review. His most recent book is set in early 1970s Detroit, a divided city still reeling from its violent race riot of 1967. Beautiful Music (Akashic Books) is the story of one young man’s transformation through music. Danny Yzemski is a husky, pop radio–loving loner balancing a dysfunctional homelife with the sudden harsh realities of freshman year at a high school marked by racial turbulence. But after tragedy strikes the family, Danny’s mother becomes increasingly erratic and angry about the seismic cultural shifts unfolding in her city and the world. As she tries to hold it together with the help of Librium, highballs, and breakfast cereal, Danny finds his own reason to carry on: rock and roll. Beautiful Music is a touching story about the power of music and its ability to save one’s soul.
