Frog Music: A Novel

Emma Donoghue

Dublin-born Emma Donoghue, now living in Canada, is an award-winning author of novels and short story collections that cover a range of topics, from convent school life in Ireland and emigration to lesbian fiction and historical novels. Her writing evokes a pleasant combination of Canadian short story master Alice Munro and Irish novelist Roddy Doyle. Her newest novel, Frog Music, is set in San Francisco in 1876, a perfect setting for Donoghue to explore the reckless, dangerous, Wild West era, when young women especially were susceptible to jealous men, arrogant millionaires and crime in the big city. The novel revolves around two women – French burlesque dancer Blanche Beunon, and mysterious, brave Jenny Bonnet – both trying to survive while finding stability, safety and perhaps even love in the process.

Little, Brown and Company / 408 pages / $27.00 cloth / April 2014