The Town Crazy, set in the sleepy town of Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in 1961, is a novel of passion, absurdity, innocence, and sorrow.
“The Town Crazy casts a strong spell, and I don’t think I’ve shaken it off yet, nor do I want to. Suzzy Roche understands so much about other people’s lives; her fiction, just like her singing and songwriting, is thrilling, beautiful, and shattering. I will be thinking about this town, these people, this captivating novel, for a long time.”
— Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, and The Wife
“Roche lays bare the outsized impact petty rivalries can have in a small community so tightly knit it creates a stranglehold.”
— Bridget Thoreson, Booklist
“Singer-songwriter Roche probes the secrets of a small American town in this immersive character-driven tale.. . . Roche’s deep understanding of [the characters] will keep readers engaged all the way to the end.”
— Publishers Weekly 7/9/20
“The Town Crazy is an absorbing novel about how damaging hasty assumptions and misplaced discretion can be.”
— Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews (September/October 2020)
“You’ll step right into this page-turner of a romp-with-oddball-heart because you’ve known these characters forever, and by the end of the novel, you’ll consider every last insecure one of them your friend.”
— Nancy Burke, author of Undergrowth
The Town Crazy, set in the sleepy town of Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in 1961, is a novel of passion, absurdity, innocence, and sorrow. A single father moves into town with his young son, which arouses suspicion from the husbands and the interest of the wives, but at the same time one of the wives seems to be losing her mind, and no one knows what to do. A contemporary, often humorous take on a bygone era, The Town Crazy also delves into the terror and cruelty of childhood, the dangerous loneliness of failing marriages, sexual repression and desire, and the intersection of art and religion, all culminating in a tragedy for which everyone in the town bears some responsibility.
Suzzy Roche is a singer/songwriter/performer/author and founding member of the singing group The Roches. She has recorded more than fifteen albums, written music for TV and film, and toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to The Town Crazy, Roche is the author of the novel Wayward Saints and the children’s book Want to Be in a Band? She often tours with her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and lives in New York City.
Pub Date: August 25, 2020
Price: $16.99 US/$22.99 CAN
Binding: Original Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-948721-12-7 (paper); 978-1-948721-23-3 (ebook)
Category: Fiction/Literary
Page Count: 276
Trim size: 5.5” x 8.5”
LCCN: 2019953837
Trade distributor: PGW
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Publicity contact: Mary Bisbee-Beek, [email protected]