Read by Elizabeth Dwyer

Shimmering with rage and sparkling with subtle humor, Billie Starr's Book of Sorries showcases Edgar Award-nominee Deborah E. Kennedy's singular voice as Jenny, a heroine in the vein of Olive Kitteridge in Crosby, Maine and Miles Roby in Empire Falls, shines a light on the town of Benson, Indiana, where lakes, grudges, and family rifts run deep - but so does a mother's love. Sometimes, a woman has to rescue herself. Jenny Newberg, Queen of Bad Decisions, is about to make another one. In a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, down-on-her-luck single mother Jenny is on a first-name basis with the debt collector at the bank, who is moving toward foreclosure. She is constantly apologizing to her precocious young daughter, Billie Starr, who is filling a book with her mother's sorries, and it seems to Jenny that no apology will ever be enough. Then a pair of strangers in black suits offers her a hefty check to seduce someone known as the Candidate. Finally, something will go her way. But nothing ever goes as Jenny plans, and she is swept into the Candidate's orbit. Surrounded by a wide universe of new ideas, she realizes how constrained her life has been by the expectations of everyone around her, and she starts to see how much more she might be capable of. And when her world is rocked to its core and Billie Starr may be in danger, Jenny is forced to do what she once thought impossible: trust in herself and her own power to make things right. A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books. Deborah E. Kennedy is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Kennedy has worked as both a reporter and editor, and also holds a master's in Fiction Writing and English Literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her debut novel, Tornado Weather, was nominated for an Edgar Award. "Billie Starr's Book of Sorries is by turns sweet, sad and funny. Much of its charm emanates from its diminutive co-star...Jenny abandons her apologetic stance and transforms into an assertive, heroic figure worthy of the real blessings she at last comes to accept." -Wall Street Journal "An enthralling suspense thriller…Exquisite prose matches deep characterization. Kennedy deserves to win an Edgar with this captivating sophomore effort." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "Funny yet bitingly realistic look at small-town life…Kennedy excels at writing quirky characters and entertaining dialogue...A grim literary mystery and a hopeful family story, this genre-blending novel manages to be both charming and heartbreaking." -Kirkus "Adeptly delves into the intricacies of interpersonal relationships within small-town life, much like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge." -Library Journal "Billie Starr's Book of Sorries is a book of righteous anger, a book of hard-earned hope, a book of laugh-out-loud humor, and, above all, a book of deep love-between mother and daughter, neighbor and friend, barback and grocer and a delightful cast of unlikely small-town bedfellows-but mostly between the reader and these wonderful pages." -Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is "Beautifully realized characters, both good and dangerous, populate the novel…This book will also break your heart. But trust in yourself to have hope for Jenny Newberg. She deserves it." -Deadly Pleasures, rating: A "Compelling, compassionate, and deliciously comic, Billie Starr's Book of Sorries is the story of a struggling single mother who makes some highly questionable choices-and falls in with some pretty low companions-to provide for her precocious (and hilarious) young daughter. Deborah Kennedy's writing is so smart and vigorous and big-souled, I loved every moment spent with these beleaguered but resilient humans who, like the best of us, somehow, exhilaratingly, muddle through." -Michelle Huneven, NBCC and L

Mode of access: World Wide Web