First published 2019
Fred Allen grows up hungry and poor in rural Georgia during the Great Depression. At three years old, he plays hymns perfectly on piano. By kindergarten, he performs Chopin flawlessly. His parents fear his musical gifts signal a curse and lock the piano away. Fred falls into despair without music until Eleanor arrives. Fresh from prison for attempted murder, she rents a room in their crumbling house. Eleanor protects Fred, feeds him, and tells him he deserves better than this life. Fred's musical journey takes him from Georgia to Juilliard, then Columbia University and the professional music world. He becomes a Grammy-nominated producer, marries Winnie, and starts a family. Success comes at a price when his past returns to fracture his family. Fred faces an impossible choice between fame and love. He returns to Thomasville, Georgia with Winnie to rebuild their marriage and discover that the greatest miracles happen not in concert halls but in small towns among broken people who refuse to give up on each other.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, second-chance
Setting: Columbia University, Georgia, Juilliard, Thomasville
Period: Great Depression
336 pages · Paperback · Thomas Nelson
Content warnings: abuse, depression, mental-illness