“This is a breathtakingly insightful, suspenseful, and gorgeously realized novel of cruelty and sorrow, anger and forgiveness, improvisation and survival, and the transcendent beauty of nature and art.” Two young girls, Audrey and Caroline, fight for a place in the world and, though their paths at times diverge, their journeys and this writer will utterly captivate you.”

Jacinda Townsend is dazzling as she transports the reader to a different time and place―the 1950s, rural Kentucky, and Harlem at the height of the jazz era. “ Saint Monkey is an absolute marvel of a book. Samrat Upadhyay, author of Arresting God in Kathmandu Townsend’s prose recalls the music of Toni Morrison, and Saint Monkey takes us on a soulful and deeply satisfying journey into the heart of Appalachia, and beyond.” “A novel of immense depth and tenderness. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Marrying musical prose with lyric vernacular, Saint Monkey delivers a stirring portrait of American storytelling and marks the appearance of an auspicious new voice in literary fiction. Jacinda Townsend’s remarkable first novel is a coming-of-age story made at once gripping and poignant by the wild energy of the Jazz Era and the stark realities of segregation. Meanwhile, Caroline sinks into the quiet anguish of a Black woman in a backwards country, where her ambitions and desires only slip further out of reach.

But fortunes can turn fast in the city―young talent means tough competition, and for Audrey failure is always one step away. Audrey flirts with love and takes the stage at the Apollo, with its fast-dancing crowds and blinding lights.

And in New York City the music never stops. That is, until chance intervenes and a booking agent offers Audrey a ticket to join the booming jazz scene in Harlem―an offer she can’t resist, not even for Caroline. Her best friend, Caroline, daydreams about Hollywood stardom, but both girls feel destined to languish in a slow-moving stopover town in Montgomery County. Fourteen-year-old Audrey Martin, with her Poindexter glasses and her head humming the 3/4 meter of gospel music, knows she’ll never get out of Kentucky―but when her fingers touch the piano keys, the whole church trembles. A stunning debut novel of two girls raised in hardship, separated by fortune, and reunited through tragedy.

Saint monkey by jacinda townsend