Frog Music, Emma Donoghue
Frog Music, Emma Donoghue
3 Rating(s)
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Frog Music
A Novel

Author: Emma Donoghue

Narrator: Khristine Hvam

Unabridged: 12 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2014

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Room, a young French burlesque dancer living in San Francisco is ready to risk anything in order to solve her friend’s murder—but only if the killer doesn’t get her first. Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice—if he doesn't track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts. In thrilling, cinematic style, Frog Music digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other. "Her greatest achievement yet . . . Emma Donoghue shows more than range with Frog Music—she shows genius." —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life.

About Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue is the author of sixteen novels, including the award-winning national bestseller Room, the basis for the acclaimed film of the same name. Her latest novel is The Paris Express. She has also written the screenplays for Room and The Wonder and nine stage plays. Born in Dublin, she lives in Ontario with her family. Find out more at EmmaDonoghue.com.

Reviews

Goodreads review by karen on August 17, 2018

From the Author Q & A: One journalist kindly alerted me to the fact that there was a hoax in my Wikipedia entry, a claim that I was writing about 'the murder of a cross-dressing frog-catcher!' - and was abashed when I told him it was true. and it is indeed a story about that, although it sounds a bit......more

Goodreads review by Jaline on August 28, 2017

This novel is controversial. The triggers here are graphic sex involving different groupings, and also child abuse – specifically in “baby farms” where the parents of little ones sent their babies at a cost due to various personal circumstances. The place is San Francisco, the year is 1876 and the s......more

Goodreads review by Philip on May 18, 2014

*Explanation of Review to follow.* When I finished this book, I was all like: I mean - did that SERIOUSLY just happen? That's a girl on the Penny-Farthing bike that's about to crash into you, even though you thought it was a dude at first glance. She was just minding her own business - off to catch so......more

Goodreads review by Ron on July 24, 2014

Emma Donoghue has broken out of her “Room.” Four years after that bestselling story of a mother and child imprisoned in a garden shed, she’s back with a novel ravenous for space, for people, for sounds — for all the life that 5-year-old Jack never had. The millions of readers who know Donoghue only......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on May 02, 2015

This book is probably between 3 and 4 stars for me. I would probably not have read it if it was not for having read Room a few years ago. However, this book is nothing like Room. The story and the characters were very interesting. The descriptions of the locales was pretty good as well. I think this......more

Quotes

"A riveting literary thriller.... Donoghue brilliantly conjures the chaos of a boomtown in the grip of both a heat wave and a smallpox epidemic; her cast of colorful lowlifes includes the freeloading Arthur and his sycophantic best friend, Ernest. But it's Blanche and Jenny who hold our attention.... FROG MUSIC begins with a mystery: Who killed Jenny? But it enthralls with two other questions: Who was Jenny? Who will Blanche become?"—Karen Holt, O, The Oprah Magazine

"FROG MUSIC...[brings] to steamy life the unresolved so-called San Miguel Mystery.... Donoghue front-loads the ­drama.... She captures San Francisco in all its ­melting-pot, fishy-smelling glory, and weaves in authentic ­details about smallpox outbreaks, race riots, and orphan­ages. ­Jenny Bonnet is an incendiary character pulled directly from the history books.... Her extraordinary life gives Donoghue's novel contemporary resonance."—Elyse Moody, Elle

"More fine work from one of popular fiction's most talented practitioners.... Donoghue's vivid rendering of Gilded Age San Francisco is notable for her atmospheric use of popular songs and slang in Blanche's native French, but the book's emotional punch comes from its portrait of a woman growing into self-respect as she takes responsibility for the infant life she's created."—Kirkus Reviews

"Emma Donoghue shows more than range with FROG MUSIC-she shows genius. Like and unlike her stunning ROOM, this novel lifts into view a strange crime, a remarkable woman, and is a Ringling Brothers-grade feat of narrative strength. As ever, Donoghue focuses on people on the skirts of the world, who make their way outside the common middle of things. Blanche and Jenny are characters you will never forget, filmed in vibrant, cinemascope prose, and they mark Emma Donoghue's greatest achievement yet."—Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life

"Donoghue's first literary crime novel is a departure from her bestselling Room, but it's just as dark and just as gripping as the latter.... Aside from the obvious whodunit factor, the book is filled with period song lyrics and other historic details, expertly researched and flushed out.... Donoghue's signature talent for setting tone and mood elevates the book from common cliffhanger to a true chef d'oeuvre."—Gabe Habash, Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Donoghue flawlessly combines literary eloquence and vigorous plotting in her first full-fledged mystery, a work as original and multifaceted as its young murder victim.... An engrossing and suspenseful tale about moral growth, unlikely friendship, and breaking free from the past."—Sarah Johnson, Booklist (Starred Review)

"Donoghue's evocative language invades the senses.... Readers won't quickly forget this rollicking, fast-paced novel, which is based on a true story and displays fine bits of humor with underlying themes of female autonomy and the right to own one's sexual identity."—Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Donoghue proves herself endlessly inventive....[She] nails both the period details and the atmosphere-think sweltering heat waves, dumping grounds for unwanted babies, and smallpox epidemics. This is the kind of book that will keep you up at night and make you smarter."—Julie Buntin, Cosmopolitan

"[An] offbeat, high-minded whodunit from the award-winning author of Room."—Adam Rathe, DuJour

"A historical narrative set in San Francisco in 1876.... [that] provides further proof that Ms. Donoghue is an unusually versatile writer."—New York Observer

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