Last Night at the Blue Angel: A Novel

Set against the backdrop of the early s Chicago jazz scene a highly ambitious and stylish literary debut that combines the atmosphere and period detail of Amor Towles Rules of Civility with the emotional depth and drama of The Memory Keepers Daughter about a talented but troubled singer her precocious ten-year-old daughter and their heartbreaking relationshipIt is the early s and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensionssegregation sexual experimentation free love the Cold Warbut it is also home to one of the countrys most vibrant jazz scenes Naomi Hill a singer at the Blue Angel club has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years Finally her big break arrivesthe cover of Look magazine But success has come at enormous personal cost Beautiful and magnetic Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her No one knows this better than Sophia her clever ten-year-old daughterFor Sophia Naomi is the center of her universe As the only child of a single unconventional mother growing up in an adult world Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding Unsettled by her uncertain home life she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment and compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes Her one constant is Jim the photographer who is her best friend surrogate father and protector But Jim is deeply in love with Naomia situation that adds to Sophias anxietyTold from the alternating perspectives of Sophia and Naomi their powerful and wrenching story unfolds in layers revealing Sophias struggle for her mothers love with Naomis desperate journey to stardom and the colorful cadre of close friends who shaped her along the waySophisticated yet poignant Last Night at the Blue Angel is an unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have It is a story ripe with surprising twists and revelations and an ending that is bound to break your heart.