Rachel Joyce's "The Music Shop" broke my heart but then mended it. Joyce creates a beautiful community and even side characters feel real and fleshed out despite the majority of the book being from the main character's perspective.
Frank owns a music shop that exclusively sells vinyl in 1988 as CDs are the next big thing (Frank scoffs). He has a talent for sensing what his patrons need and shelves records by feeling rather than genre. One day, a woman faints outside the shop and as he holds her and the neighborhood discusses calling an ambulance, Frank feels a connection to her when her eyes flutter open. This kicks off the love story of the book, but it's so much more than that. We learn about how Frank came to know so much about music through flashbacks to his childhood, get to know the other business owners and residents of Unity Street, and see Frank helping people find their way through music. The bulk of this book takes place in 1988 and 1989 and there is an undercurrent of the changing times in London which Frank and his compatriots are resisting. It becomes a larger theme as Frank clings to the past in more ways than just his vinyl.
Joyce crafts complex relationships quickly and explores what it means to love, to trust, to heal and to believe. "The Music Shop" is a lovely and inspiring little story that in the end teaches the lesson of never giving up and it had me in tears.

Frank Adair, “a gentle bear of a man,” owns a music shop on Unity Street in an unnamed city in England. It is 1988 and sales of CDs are overtaking sales of vinyl but Frank refuses to sell the former. He is a music therapist in that he can find the perfect piece that each customer needs; he may not give customers what they request, but he is invariably correct in giving them what they need. One day, Ilse Brauchmann, a mysterious German woman, appears and turns Frank’s world upside down.

This book reminded me of The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George in which Monsieur Perdu, the protagonist, is a literary apothecary who prescribes novels; using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. Frank is an equivalent musical apothecary who prescribes music to help people “through illness, grief, loss of confidence, and loss of jobs, as well as the more daily things like football results and the weather.”

Frank has “endless patience” with others and their troubles and his life’s mission is to help people: “he had a kind of empathy for everyone.” Though he listens to others’ feelings all the time, he tends to maintain a distance from people: “He was perfectly fine with emotions, so long as they belonged to other people. . . . Easier to disconnect from that part of life and turn his back on love altogether. Easier to find what he needed in music.” His goal is to “run a small shop in a dead-end street, without the complications of love or ties – . . . [to] put everything into serving ordinary people and avoid receiving anything in return.” One friend observes that “Frank was so busy loving other people he had no room to accommodate the fact that someone might turn round one day and love him back.”

Frank reminded me of the protagonist in The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Like Fikry’s life, Frank’s is altered by the arrival of a woman at his shop, someone who challenges him to become more involved in life. A friend tells Frank, “’Helping someone is entirely different from being involved. Helping is all on your own terms. . . . You expect other people to change, Frank. But what about you? What are you afraid of?’” Unfortunately, Frank does not seem capable of the type of personal transformation that Fikry undergoes. Also, like Fikry’s world, Frank’s is rapidly changing. Not only are CDs replacing vinyl records, but a development company is trying to buy all the buildings on Unity Street in order to demolish them and build new housing.

There is a cast of quirky but endearing characters, most of whom are fellow shopkeepers on Unity Street. In some ways they are forgotten people living on the margins of society: an ex-priest, a female tattooist, a Polish baker who talks to his dead wife when he bakes, and twin brothers who own a funeral business and sometimes hold hands like children. The most memorable for me is Kit, the exuberant klutz who serves as Frank’s shop assistant.

There are some wonderful touches of humour. For his shop, Frank buys a rundown building which needs a lot of work but he is undeterred: “He admitted to the estate agent he didn’t have any experience with DIY but guessed it couldn’t be so hard if you got a book from the library.” Feeling very nervous while meeting a woman, Frank decides “to focus on the button of her white blouse, third one down. It was a perfectly ordinary little button. Nothing could go amiss if he looked there.” Kit and the waitress in the Singing Teapot café provide comic scenes as well.

Though I enjoy music, I am not very knowledgeable about the subject. This book is actually very informative. In the flashbacks to Frank’s childhood when his mother taught him how to listen to music, there are also anecdotes about various composers and musicians. When I didn’t recognize a piece of music mentioned, I found myself downloading it and listening to it as Frank advises. In the end, Frank gives music lessons to the reader as well as to customers. And of course music teaches about life: “Jazz was about the spaces between notes. It was about what happened when you listened to the thing inside you. The gaps and the cracks. Because that was where life really happened: when you were brave enough to free-fall.”

This is a charming, gentle read. Though sentimental in places, it emphasizes the healing powers of love and music. Readers who enjoyed Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy or Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand will definitely be enchanted by this novel as well.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Lovers of Harold and Queenie should read this book. Lovers of vinyl music should read this book. Lovers of a feel-good romance should read this book. Joyce has a great sense of character and pacing, and I can see this one on the big screen.

“If you told Frank the kind of thing you wanted, or simply how you felt that day, he had the right track in minutes. It was a knack he had. A gift. He knew what people needed even when they didn’t know it themselves.” Frank heard the song inside people.

I highly recommend this quirky and charming book, especially for music lovers. Within the story is a love letter to music masters that will touch your heart.

It is 1988 and Frank’s world is changing. He is the owner of a dying vinyl record store located on a run-down street soon to be demolished in the name of ‘progress’. The music world is also changing but Frank is digging in his heals, refusing to move on to the new craze of cds and cassette tapes. I loved Frank’s steadfast dedication to vinyl even as his suppliers and customers dwindle.

Ilse Brachman enters Frank’s life after she faints outside of his shop. Ilse is a mystery, a newcomer to town with an air of sadness. I appreciated how the author kept me hanging with elusive details of Ilse’s situation and I resisted the temptation to read ahead. When Frank first sets eyes on Ilse, it appears to be one-sided love at first sight though he can’t admit it and is awkward beyond belief. As time goes by, the dynamics change, the ebb and flow of the relationship tease and the touches of humor with tinges of sadness are well written and feel genuine.

The story methodically moves between present and past when Frank is raised by his single mother Peg, a free spirit who passed on to Frank her intense passion for music. Frank’s reflections on this past make for some emotional moments.

Note: will add to additional online venues upon publication.

4 stars

The Music Shop is a beautifully written novel about a small street in a London suburb in the late 1980s. It is an homage to music, and as a lover of music myself, I found it a joy to read. I savored the musical references, lyrics and band/composer trivia. Joyce also highlights the benefits of community and relationships.

My favorite part of the book is the focus on music and its benefits. Frank has a gift of knowing exactly which song will help or appeal to a customer. I also loved the characters; Joyce created such a wonderful group of people that I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know. What didn’t appeal to me as much was the long gap in time between the two parts of the story. I felt that too much time passed for the events to seem realistic. The only aspect of the time gap that I did like was seeing was what became of Kit and Maud.

The Music Shop is a fabulous read, and I recommend it to anyone who loves genuinely drawn characters and a good plot. I received this book to read and review; all opinions are my own.

Imagine a novel that mixes the evocative sense of the 80s as written by David Mitchell in "Black Swan Green," complicated characters and communities as shaped by Fredrik Backman in "A Man Called Ove," and a subtle mystery such as that found in Joyce's earlier novel "The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" -- "The Music Shop" is that book. The richness of the characters and setting create an interplay as sophisticated as the classical operas detailed in the book and as quirky and surprising as the popular and jazz music sold in the music shop.

The story centers on the character of Frank, a music shop owner with a special gift for knowing what music is needed to heal the hurting people who enter his store. As he celebrates vinyl records and refuses to sell CDs, Frank 's decision speaks to larger issues of social change, gentrification, and the struggle between capitalism and communities. The other characters who live in the doomed neighborhood are also deftly drawn: Ilse, the mysterious woman who always wears gloves; Maud, the tattoo artist; Kit, the awkward assistant; and the waitress at the Singing Teapot.

While some reviewers have seen the book as centering on the love between characters, for me, the book was a love letter to all the communities who are threatened by progress and social change, as well as a romance that sings of the power of music.

This is my first book by Rachel Joyce and definitely won't be my last!

The Music Shop is a heartwarming story about Frank, a vinyl-only music shop owner. Set in 1988, the music shop attracts the lonely and sleepless crowd. Frank has a special gift for connecting his customers with just the right vinyl record they need. Then one day Ilse Brauchmann, a beautiful young woman, walks into the shop and turns Frank's world upside down.

Wonderful, quirky, and eccentric characters fill this nontraditional love story throughout. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I absolutely loved all the talk about music and the feelings it raised.

*I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Random House for the ARC.

"Bon appetit"

I devoured this enchanting tale created by Rachel Joyce. It was captivating, enlightening, moving, and even exasperating at times. It's not the kind of novel that is overly gratifying... at least not at first... that's where the exasperation comes in, but in the end, I found it to be very rewarding.

Meet Frank... Frank is a 40 year old single man that owns a music shop. "I'm going to help people find music." Frank could not play music, he could not read a score, he had no practical knowledge whatsoever, but when he sat in front of a customer and truly listened, he heard a kind of song. Frank was committed to music, but love... that was something he was never going to consider again. "I'm done with all that. My shop is all I need." Yes, Frank was content with spending the rest of his days in his music shop selling vinyl records and helping people find music. Only fate had other things in store for him... times were changing. Vinyl was no longer being sought after, CD's have become the new way to listen to music. Music reps are encouraging Frank that if he wants to make it in the business, he's got to sell CD's, but Frank's not budging. As if this wasn't enough frustration for Frank, a mysterious German woman faints in front of his shop, leaving him and everyone in the community stunned. She returns later to thank Frank for helping her, and it's then that Frank realizes that he can't "hear" this woman... she has no song, she's completely silent to him. Silence was where the magic happened.

The story between Frank and Ilse Brauchmann is so unconventional... it's really like nothing else. It's not a classic love tale that you would hope for. It's complicated... but isn't all love? What's so great about this story is that they come together through a love of music. Only they're both broken and with each others help, they find a way through. The cure is in the disease.

I really enjoyed the character development in this novel despite the fact that many of the characters were not given very robust roles or titles in the novel. The overall sense of the community on Unity Street really makes the novel come alive with warmth and... well... unity. There was something unique about each character, I enjoyed Maud's feisty and snappy dialogue. Kit, and his clumsy, can't do anything right, but always wanting to get it right attitude. The waitress... such a simple character in the novel, but yet she added so much in those chapters I felt. Those are just to name a few, but the community really does come alive.

I'm going to have to check out some of Rachel Joyce's other work. This was such a fun and quick read. I realize it probably won't be for everyone, but if you love music and enjoy a simple (okay, maybe not so simple) love story, then I say give it a chance.

I'd like to thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Rachel Joyce for allowing me the chance to read this novel in exchange for my review. I really, really enjoyed it!

Joyce has written a quiet book set in late 1980s UK featuring a cast of unforgettable characters. While it's primarily a love story between Frank, the shop owner, and Ilse, the mysterious German woman he meets when she faints outside the store, it's also a tale of gentrification, dislocation, secrets, and most of all friendship. You'll learn a little about various musicians as a result of Frank's lessons for Ilse (I found myself googling for more info) and you'll catch his infectious admiration for them. His friends and colleagues- Kit the shop assistant, the Father who runs a religious souvenir shop, Maud the tattooist, and my favorite, the teashop waitress- are all people you'll recognize. Yes this is slow at times but there's also a rhythm to Joyce's writing that will carry you through once you see it. There's a couple of twists I did not expect (lovely!) and an ending that will warm you. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This was a good one.

On a rundown dead-end street in 1988 a record store is struggling to remain relevant wit the surge of the "new thing": CDs. Frank, the store's owner, will not bow to record label pressure to start stocking CDs and maintains that vinyl is the only true way to listen to music. Frank's shop attracts all kinds of patronage, and Frank uses this innate sixth sense he has to pair people up not necessarily with the music they want, but with the music they need. One day, beautiful Ilse comes into the shop asking Frank to teach her about music. Frank's teachings open up remembrances of the past when his mother taught him about music. And as Frank and Ilse connect every week over music, the bond they begin forming scares Frank of moving forward, but things have a way of moving on their own. Will the healing power of music be enough to bring Frank and Ilse together?

This is the first book I've read by Rachel Joyce, and I quite enjoyed it. I loved the insight we got into different types of music and composers. Whether the information is accurate or fictionalized I'm not sure, but I was entertained for sure.

I especially loved Frank's talent of knowing the type of music that people needed to hear. To help with what ails them, and how he was always there for people, yet he couldn't employ the same techniques with himself. It's at this point that we see those he helped and those he impacted come together in turn to help him. The story was full of some truly beautiful moments.

Although the middle kind of slowed down a bit for me as we are trying to piece together the moment where Frank's life took a turn that caused quite the impact on his personal life and his feeling of not being able to love.

It's an interesting journey and the secondary characters, other shop owners working the run-down dead-end street, from a female tattoo artist, to an ex-priest selling religious tokens, a pair of twin morticians, to Frank's often bumbling but good-hearted assistant. These are the people who have formed their own little community and are trying to fight back against change.

This was a sweet read with heartache but hopeful.

A journey through music by the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Frank the owner of a music shop senses what piece of music each customer needs. Except when Ilse comes into the shop he isn't sure what to feel or how to act. Music and love, a really fun read.

A cast of characters that seem straight out of a Richard Curtis/Working Title film. Spot-on with late 80s attitudes and sharp details on the decline of vinyl, rise of cds, then decline of cds and rise of vinyl.
A quirky, fun love story about the power of music and friendship.

It’s 1988 and Frank sells vinyl records on a small street in a depressed part of town. He refuses to sell CDs even when the distributors all threaten to drop him. He loves music and is able to match a person with the music they need. What he doesn’t think he needs is love.

There’s a dry wit to the book. The characters are a group of misfits and oddballs and there’s humor in their dialog and activities. It’s also a well written book. A book that makes you think. When Peg discusses how music is about silence, you just get it. “And of course, the silence at the beginning of a piece of music is always different from the silence at the end.” “Why Peg?” “Because if you listen, the world changes. It’s like falling in love. Only no one gets hurt.”

Joyce manages to really get the time and place. The atmosphere- the grafffiti, the developers trying to buy up the properties, the falling down condition of the properties, is as much a character as Frank, Ilse or Kit.

Unfortunately, the book is not consistently interesting. It goes through numerous dry patches where nothing happens. Just when I would begin to think I should stop reading, it would get better and I would decide to stick with it. The memories of Peg talking about music were my favorites. An interest in music is a must for this book. Not just classical, but all. The ending made the dry patches worth it.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

The Music Shop is a sweet, gentle well paced YA. The book follows the life of Frank, his love for music and his unusual upbringing that makes him cynical and unable to love. All that seems to change when a woman faints in front of his store. The novel spans many seasons and years eventually concluding.
It's a good book for anyone looking for a quick easy read.

This is hands down one of the best books I have read this year. At its heart, it is a love story of two soulmates, Frank and Ilsa, but as you read and watch their intertwined lives unfold, you realize it is so much more. It is a story of friendship and the need we all have to be accepted for who we are. Music is threaded throughout the story, in the shop and in the daily lives of all the people who visit and come to know Frank. We learn how it can change us, as well as, how we should listen not just with our ears but with our hearts. As the plot advances, the theme of change enters the story. Frank is resistant to changing from vinyl to CD, gentrification is determined to come to Unity Street, and Frank and Ilsa are both hesitant to advance their relationship. An unfortunate tragedy forces the greatest change in all their lives and as everybody goes their own way, you begin to question if the ties of friendship between all the characters wasn’t as strong as you hoped. The novel flash forwards twenty years to Ilsa deciding to search for Frank, find the answer to their relationship, and why he left her in the tea shop all those years ago. At the end we discover that friendship is still there. All the lives Frank touched with music now come together to show him how important he is, and how he and his music changed them.

This is a beautiful and deeply moving story. I highly recommend it.

For almost a year now, Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy have both sat on a shelf on one of my bookcases, longing to be read. For some reason, every time I go to reach for one, the timing just feels wrong, and I select a different book. After reading The Music Shop, Joyce’s upcoming release, I can hardly wait to read them both.

The Music Shop is the story of a man named Frank and the vinyl store he runs in the late 1980s in a rather run-down area of London on a dead-end street. Frank has an uncanny ability to select exactly the right song to help each and every person who enters his store, and although he listens patiently to the emotional stories his customers tell, Frank never reveals much of himself to anyone else. One night, a mysterious woman in a green coat named Ilse faints outside his shop, and his entire life changes. Throughout the book, Frank shares the emotions of music with his customers, and readers get insight into his past through flashback chapters that tell of his life with his eccentric mother, Peg.

I was immediately charmed by The Music Shop, and each chapter drew me in more and more. Aside from the plot, The Music Shop is an excellent course in music appreciation, and my speakers have been playing many of the artists and songs mentioned ever since I began the book (although not on vinyl, which would make Frank positively weep with sadness). From Frank’s interactions with his customers to the music lessons he gives to Ilse, readers are introduced to music from all genres in entirely new and profound ways.

The plot itself is a beautiful story that is told in even more beautiful language, and although it seems like a typical boy meets girl tale on the surfaces, there is nothing typical at all about The Music Shop. Instead, readers are faced with questions about pain, loss, and the risks we all take when we open our hearts to others in ways that they have not faced in other works before. Frank’s and Ilse’s stories unfold much like a smooth jazz song, slowly and quietly at first, with a few sharp bursts of notes here and there, but it builds to a frenzy of excitement toward the end. Along the way, it is filled with incredibly dynamic characters who are easy to love, and if other readers are like me, they will especially adore Kit and his innocent, but bumbling, enthusiasm.

The Music Shop was not what I expected, and just when I thought I had it figured out and thought it might play out like a common love story, it threw me a curve and led me into territory I never saw coming. Be prepared for a few secrets to be revealed, many tears to be shed, and a genuine love for this darling book and its even more darling characters.

The Music Shop is a quirky and delightful book. Rachel Joyce has a gift for writing memorable and colorful characters. She tells a story of love, loss, friendship, pain, and the healing solidarity of community support.
In the music shop which sells only vinyl and never CD's, Frank is a musical apothecary, connecting people with just the right song or artist, and healing the wounds of their lives. Frank is wonderful at helping others, but rather repressed at confronting his past and his own feelings. That is until he meets a small German woman in a green coat, Ilse.
While this is Frank's story, the real star of this book is Music itself, and its ability to communicate without words and bring people together. While it isn't necessary to wear headphones while reading this book, I would certainly advise you listen to the the pieces of music which are discussed in this tale. It will give you a greater understanding for the characters and what they are feeling.

This book is so wonderful on so many levels that I’ll be recommending it to everyone. Lovers of music, lovers of vinyl, people who believe in the healing power of music and art and love will all fall under the spell of this sweet and beautifully written story.

Frank's music shop is different than most, in that he sells only vinyl. But Frank takes pride in his ability to connect every customer with exactly the piece of music that they need, whether it's what the customer thinks he wants or not…. until a young woman enters Frank's store, and his life, and takes him on a journey of his own.

This book got off to a slow start for me, and it took awhile to get into the story. Many of the characters reminded me of people I know, which made the story seem a bit more real. I would love to visit Frank's shop, not just to let him try to find the perfect music for me, but also to browse through that huge inventory of vinyl. I liked the story itself, but the book didn't quite live up to my expectations. Other readers seem to have really liked to book, so maybe this just wasn't the book for me at this point in time.

Delightful and enjoyable. Perfect light read. Everything Rachel Joyce writes is like getting thoughtful gift.