The Singer Sisters

March 1, 2024

In 1996, alt-rocker Emma Cantor, daughter of a reclusive 1960s folk legend, is touring and hoping for a record deal. As she gains fame, and also uncovers family secrets, she grapples with her relationship with her mother and her future. Journalist and Lilith Magazine editor Seltzer debuts with a 100K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2024
Seltzer’s lively if soapy debut follows a Jewish mother and daughter joined by their careers in popular music. The parallel narrative begins in the mid-1960s, when Judie Zingerman and her sister, Sylvia, are a popular folk-rock duo known as the Singer Sisters. The second story line concerns Judie’s daughter, Emma Cantor, an up-and-coming alt-rocker in the mid-1990s who’s trying to land her first record deal. Headstrong Emma has a conflicted relationship with Judie, which only becomes more complicated when a secret from Judie’s past comes to light and threatens to scuttle Emma’s career. The details are revealed later; mainly, the plot functions as a means for Seltzer to explore the importance of songwriting to her characters, as Emma’s discovery of Judie’s never performed songs helps her understand the choices Judie made as a younger woman. Judie has an alluring theory of songwriting: “I prefer when won’t let you in at first, and you have to knock on the door. But once you go inside, the house is endless.” Throughout, readers are treated to numerous examples of Judie’s and Emma’s perceptive insights on the business (“Becoming a bona fide rock star required.... The look, the presence and yes, the songs”), which almost make up for the schematic plot. Music lovers ought to take note. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary.

October 1, 2024
A sprawling family drama about two generations of folk rock musicians. Judie Zingerman and Dave Cantor were baby boomer musical royalty, renowned for writing and performing their own songs in the 1960s and '70s. But when we first meet them in 1995, in their Greenwich Village apartment, they're announcing their divorce to their young adult children, Emma and Leon. Both siblings are already involved in the music business, but Emma, a vocalist, has an antagonistic relationship with her mother, and soon the two are sparring about Emma's decision to forgo college in order to tour with a ska band--Judie had skipped college herself, which she now regrets. Later, when they're alone, Emma and Leon allude to Judie's "tragedy"--years earlier, she'd quit the music business, for reasons that include child rearing but are never completely clear. Seltzer's debut novel is big: lots of characters, lots of plot, lots of emoting, with a timeline that skitters back and forth and chapters told from multiple points of view. At times, it can be hard to keep track, and the writing can be overripe. Other key figures include Judie's older sister, Sylvia, with whom she first performs, and Rose, the family's former nanny, who has a deeper relationship to them. The author writes confidently about the music business in the different eras in which the action unfolds. And the folk rock milieu, on- and offstage, is vividly drawn, with real musicians--from Joan Baez to Patti Smith--co-existing with fictional ones. An original, sometimes stirring story that would probably make an even better movie.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.