​Got a great surprise when a review of Beautiful Musicpopped up in Rolling Stone France not long ago. https://www.rollingstone.fr/beau-repaire-michael-zadoorian/
The French translation of BeMu was just published a couple of months ago (French title: Beau Repaire) so it’s a brand new book there. Full disclosure: I didn't really even know that Rolling Stone had a French Edition, but I was genuinely thrilled to see my book reviewed in such an iconic music magazine.  (It doesn’t hurt that it’s a really good review too.)  And to top it off, it features a rather large photograph of yours truly, as captured by Ace Photog Doug Coombe at Third Man Detroit.  A large photo of the bald, middle-aged author in a book review?  Only in Europe, baby. Anyway, it was a thrill.  Now if only American Rolling Stone would take the hint...

The Michigan Notable Books for 2019 were recently released and I was thrilled to see Beautiful Music among this year's selections.  It's a great honor just to have the book chosen because so many books are published every year so it's wonderful to get noticed. Media outlets all over the state will be covering the winning books, so it's helpful as well. It's also cool to be on a list with such a diverse selection of books -- everything from fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, children's books, YA, poetry, histories, biographies and more.  All of them either written by Michiganians, set in the state, or dealing with Michigan subject matter.  My story collection The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit was a Michigan Notable Book in 2010. Bonus: On the official press release, fellow Ferndale author Josh Malerman and I both got a shout-out for our previous books that have been made into films. The Leisure Seeker for me and the phenomenally successful Netflix film Bird Box for Josh. Pretty damn cool.

Got some wonderful news recently. The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA), selected Beautiful Music as the Adult Fiction award winner of their "Great Lakes Great Reads" program, an annual program to recognize excellence in writing for books about or written by authors with ties to the Great Lakes region. I'm in some good company. Past winners include Bonnie Jo Campbell and David Maraness. The awards ceremony was held in Minneapolis on October 3rd, at the GLIBA's annual Heartland Fall Forum. The event was MC'd by Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs. I met some cool folks like Nickolas and Chloe Benjamin, and had a great time, as you can tell by the photo. Dork!

Just when I thought things were slowing down with Beautiful Music, a bunch of new items popped up on the Google. A couple of new reviews appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent and Lansing City Pulse, along with a long interview that I had forgotten I'd done with a very cool literary journal called Midwestern Gothic. It's all here. Have a gander if you feel like it. 

Oprah.com has chosen Beautiful Music for the Summer Book Guide. 

Novelist Michael Ferro reviews Beautiful Music in the Michigan Quarterly Review online.