Ben Bruton Literary

02/13/2025

I just made a rather long post on Facebook that was somehow doubled. I “archived” one of them; however, in doing that they both disappeared.
Does anyone know how to recover “archived” posts please?
Thank you, Ben

12/08/2018

More on Rob Hoerburger’s powerful novel WHY DO BIRDS (which I’m publicizing for 71 Songs; on sale March 2019):
New York City, 1982. A woman who was once the most popular singer in the world finds herself largely forgotten and in the grip of a deadly affliction. A younger woman, a sometime-DJ and survivor of a horrific childhood accident, sees musical apartheid wherever she turns. An undercover gay cop tries to reconnect to a long-subsumed musical memory. Popular music itself seems perched on the edge of a precipice.
WHY DO BIRDS presents pop music as not just soundtrack but as the very lifeblood of its characters. As their paths cross and collide, they turn to it for nothing short of regained innocence.

12/01/2018

I am truly excited to share with you WHY DO BIRDS (which I’m publicizing for 71 Songs; March 2019), the lyrical debut novel from New York Times editor and writer Rob Hoerburger. A literary approach to the world of pop music, it combines the perfect cultural pitch of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity with the kind of deeply drawn, historical characters of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.

11/30/2018

BOOKLIST, one of the 4 major book trade magazines—which publishes early reviews of upcoming books of note—has just weighed in on Steven Sidley’s novel IMPERFECT SOLO (which I’m publicizing for Arcade Publishing/Skyhorse; on sale February 2019); and they love it:
“A melancholy, wry, and thoughtful meditation on love, music, and aging . . . Sidley wonderfully captures the hazy, bustling world of LA, and the descriptions of playing are comparable to Richard Powers at his best. Like Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to an End, the mundanity and frustrations of American corporate experience are depicted with unerring accuracy.”

11/21/2018

NPR’s Renee Montagne raves in advance about the latest novel I’m publicizing (Arcade Publishing/Skyhorse; February 2019), Steven Sidley’s IMPERFECT SOLO, calling it “a perfect riff on what it means to be human in this unsettled age—a complex range of notes from the profound, to the tender, to the laugh-out-loud. Anti-hero Joshua Meyer is, like the characters of Martin Amis and the Coen Brothers, hapless and hopeful, brave and bewildered; he is a little bit of all of us. Bravo!”

10/14/2018

Another absolute rave review for BEETHOVEN’S TENTH by Richard Kluger (which I’m publicizing for Rare Bird Books.) Tuesday’s HOUSTON CHRONICLE writes: “This tantalizing scenario plays out with gusto—or allegro con brio, to use a more fitting term—in “Beethoven’s Tenth,” a new novel that proves international intrigue need not be limited to industrial espionage or fighting terrorism.”

Imagine, just for a moment, that a nearly illegible manuscript purporting to be an embryonic Beethoven symphony is found in a stuffy Swiss attic. Would the world sound another ode to joy, or would this improbable discovery strike a sour note?

10/03/2018

A wonderful and extensive feature interview in the PORTLAND PRESS HERALD with author Jeffrey Lewis on his new novel BEALPORT: A Novel of A Town, which I’m publicizing for Haus Publishing. Set in a working class Maine coastal town, this feature also appeared Sunday in most newspapers in Maine.

Emmy winner Jeffrey Lewis, who splits his time between Castine and Los Angeles, will give talk about his book, 'Bealport,' on Tuesday in Portland.

09/21/2018

A fascinating feature interview from the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Kluger on his latest novel, BEETHOVEN’S TENTH (which I’m publicizing for Rare Bird Books). The feature will also appear this weekend in a multitude of other San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, including the OAKLAND TRIBUNE, EAST BAY TIMES, CONTRA COSTA TIMES, and MARIN COUNTY JOURNAL, among others.

Berkeley author Richard Kluger’s new novel built around the discovering Beethoven’s long-missing 10th Symphony.

09/21/2018

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO’s “ALL THINGS CONSIDERED” raved yesterday about Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Kluger’s novel BEETHOVEN’S TENTH (which I’m publicizing for Rare Bird Books) saying: “In Beethoven’s Tenth, Kluger has given music lovers, musicians and musicologists a fun and spellbindingly written work of fiction that has the power to remind readers everywhere of the immortal Beethoven’s real-life contributions and, in the end, of the immortality of music itself.”
(You can click below to hear the review read on-air or read it yourself).

Beethoven changed the course of music with his mighty nine symphonies. What would happen to music — and to the world — if the manuscript of a 10th symphony

08/28/2018

The venerable NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW includes Richard Kluger’s novel, BEETHOVEN’S TENTH (which I’m publicizing for Rare Bird Books) in their “New & Noteworthy” column this coming Sunday, September 2. Congratulations Richard and Rare Bird Books!

A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.