My first novel, Gabriel’s Songbook, will be available from Pisgah Press on 1 December 2017. You can imagine how thrilled I am about this! It’s something that I’ve long hoped for, and soon I can cross it off my bucket list. But that doesn’t mean I’m finished, because the next item on my list is “publish short story collection,” then record new album, then “publish second novel” — you get the idea. You can go to the website Pisgah Press if you’re interested in preordering (I’ll sign your copy) before the 1 December publication date. (You might want to look at other Pisgah Press titles as well.)

Thanks for reading!

Gabriel’s Songbook is a living portrait of the artist as a wayward musician, the story of a musician whose talent carries him from the hills of Appalachia to the grime and glamor of Nashville and back home again. Gritty and lyrical, rock ’n’ roll and old-time country, it transports the reader deep into that age-old dream of making the big time, and shows us the beauty and pathos that lurks underneath.

Here are kind words from those who’ve read the review copy . . .

What a wonderful book! Artistic ambition, first love, small-town Appalachian life, the image-obsessed machinations of the Nashville music industry: all ring so authentic, so true. Michael Amos Cody’s first novel is gripping, poignant, and unforgettable.

—Jeff Mann, author of Country

I came to care for these characters so much I wished I could step into the book and warn Gabriel and Eliza of the perils ahead of them, or to sit in the audience and hear the searching songs Gabriel sings. Michael Amos Cody shows a care with how his characters speak, and how they interact with one another, that gives the novel both a poetic charge and a lived-in authenticity. Gabriel’s Songbook resonates like a great ballad, a song of love and struggle that keeps chiming in the ears long after the final note is played.

—Jesse Graves, author of Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine and Basin Ghosts

Michael Amos Cody writes with the vivid clarity of one who has made it through the punishing Nashville grind and survived, and the passion of a true believer in the power and beauty of the music itself. Behind the glaring lights of Nashville, the late nights, seedy managers and bad deals, is a beautiful tale of redemption and a love story that will stick with you long after the novel is finished. . . . Cody is not just a wonderful writer but a top-notch musician and songwriter as well, and that musicality is in evidence on every page—from the heartfelt lyrics that occasionally punctuate the action, to simple moments like a haircut shared between estranged lovers. This is the best novel of the music business I’ve come across in a very long time.

—Mark D. Baumgartner, Editor, Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature

Michael Amos Cody writes with a strong, authentic voice about the Appalachia I know. There is no posturing or exaggeration here. Instead, this is a book that strives after Hemingway’s maxim to write one true sentence, and Cody does that without fail. Gabriel’s Songbook is a novel full of heart and longing and it deserves its distinguished place on the shelf with some of the best stories of the region. I hope it is the first of many more books about Runion, North Carolina.

—Charles Dodd White, author of A Shelter of Others and Lambs of Men

 

Gabriel’s Songbook by Michael Amos Cody
300 pp. / $17.95
Release date Dec. 1, 2017
ISBN: 9781942016366 / LCCN: 2017946781
Pisgah Press, LLC / PO Box 9663 / Asheville, NC 28815