Oh Sara Zarr how you take ordinary words and make each one feel important and needed. Words should throw you a freaking parade!
I was lucky enough to attend the launch party of The Lucy Variations and was able to hear Sara share the very personal story of how this book came into being. She is an exceptional speaker because she speaks like she writes. Open, honest, and with heart.
The first time I met Sara, she was in the process of writing this book. She shared how she chose to write in third person and how she was already deciding that this might be the big flop of her career. I don't normally like third person but had just read and loved The Probability of Miracles which is a very well done third person YA book, so I knew it could be done well and I kind of assumed Sara Zarr could do it.
This book is so stinking beautiful and it makes you ask so many questions about your own life. My favorite question asked in the book is: What do you love? Because what we really truly love is life itself. One thing I love? Sara Zarr's simple, perfect prose. And how she seems to makes her stories seem effortless even though you know her whole heart and soul went into the pages...the very opposite of effortless.
BOOK BLURB:
Lucy Beck-Moreau once
had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her
name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future
seemed certain.
That was all before she turned fourteen.
Now,
at sixteen, it's over. A death, and a betrayal, led her to walk away.
That leaves her talented ten-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the full
weight of the Beck-Moreau family expectations. Then Gus gets a new
piano teacher who is young, kind, and interested in helping Lucy
rekindle her love of piano -- on her own terms. But when you're used to
performing for sold-out audiences and world-famous critics, can you ever
learn to play just for yourself?
National Book Award finalist
Sara Zarr takes readers inside the exclusive world of privileged San
Francisco families, top junior music competitions, and intense
mentorships. The Lucy Variations is a story of one girl's struggle to
reclaim her love of music and herself. It's about finding joy again,
even when things don't go according to plan. Because life isn't a
performance, and everyone deserves the chance to make a few mistakes
along the way.
Read more about it HERE. Has a teeny tiny bit of swearing, but is noticeably clean.
