Billie Starr's Book of Sorries: A Novel

by Deborah E. Kennedy

Overview

“Funny yet bitingly realistic look at small-town life…A grim literary mystery and a hopeful family story, this genre-blending novel manages to be both charming and heartbreaking.” —Kirkus

“An enthralling suspense thriller…Exquisite prose matches deep characterization. Kennedy deserves to win an Edgar.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

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.

Shimmering with rage and sparkling with subtle humor, Billie Starr's Book of Sorries showcases Edgar Award-nominee Deborah E. Kennedy's singular voice and shines a light on the town of Benson, Indiana, where lakes, grudges, and family rifts run deep – but so does a mother’s love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250138439
Publisher:	Flatiron Books
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/01/2022

Edgar finalist Kennedy follows her debut, Tornado Weather, with an enthralling suspense thriller. Unmarried 28-year-old Jenny Newberg, who lives in Benson, Ind., a small town where “you might meet yourself on the street, coming and going,” is always apologizing for everything. Meanwhile, her precocious eight-year-old daughter, Billie Starr, and a school friend record her “sorries” in a book. They plan to publish it, not for the money but “for the good of the world.” Despite all Jenny’s apologies, “nothing ever gets better.” Until it seems it might, when two men in black suits offer Jenny the chance to get out of debt—if she wears a wire while seducing the Candidate, a married man who’s running for high political office. Jenny’s rendezvous with the Candidate at a hotel is supposed to change her and Billie’s lives. It does. But not exactly the way Jenny hoped. The Candidate endears himself to Jenny, fixing her furnace and being attentive to Billie. Yet something seems off kilter. When Billie goes missing after a Christmas field trip to Chicago, Jenny goes into high gear to find her, and, in the process, herself. The tension rises as the real intent behind the seduction scheme unfolds. Exquisite prose matches deep characterization. Kennedy deserves to win an Edgar with this captivating sophomore effort. Agent: Yishai Seidman, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

“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 LA Times Book Award finalist and author of Search and Off Course

"Billie Starr’s Book of Sorries is such an incredibly touching dive into the world of a struggling single mom who has to make bad decisions for the good of her daughter. This book is searingly honest about small town life, and the claustrophobia that comes with it. There are no bad people, just bad choices. Loved reading this, and can’t wait for more from Deborah Kennedy!" —Amina Akhtar, author of Kismet and #FashionVictim

“A heartfelt and expertly crafted exploration of motherhood and finding the shimmering possibilities in oneself. Kennedy’s writing cuts open small-town Midwestern America, delivering grit, gossip, and generational relationships that bleed through a life both as an anchor of familiarity and as a shackle against hope. A deeply empathetic and nuanced second novel, which solidifies Kennedy as a master of illuminating the intricacies, mythos, and pain of Main Street USA.”

—Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark

“A rollicking, zany novel about a single mother scraping by in small town America that examines the politics of power, beauty, and family.”

—Ash Davidson, acclaimed author of Damnation Spring

From the Publisher

07/01/2022

Fired for defending herself from a sexual assault by her boss, Jenny Newberg is desperate to find a way to support herself and her bright young daughter, Billie Starr. Finding work is nearly impossible when other business owners blacklist her in their small Indiana town. When strangers approach her with a proposition to seduce a candidate running for governor, she accepts the job. The promised payment never appears, but the candidate, charmed by her beauty, tracks her down and convinces her to work for him at his campaign headquarters. As they get ready for the election season, Jenny spends less time with her daughter and relies on family and friends to help watch Billie Starr. On the night of the campaign launch party, Billie Starr goes missing, and Jenny must overcome her fear of inadequacy to find the confidence within herself to save her daughter. VERDICT Kennedy's second novel (after Edgar-nominated Tornado Weather) adeptly delves into the intricacies of interpersonal relationships within small-town life, much like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge.—Joy Gunn

Library Journal

2022-07-13
A down-on-her-luck single mom takes a job that ends up changing her life—and endangering her family—in this funny yet bitingly realistic look at small-town life.

In the town of Benson, Indiana, Jenny Newberg is having a hard time. She can’t pay her bills, her ex (and the father of her daughter) won’t leave her alone, her mother criticizes every choice she makes, and she’s always disappointing her daughter, Billie Starr, a second grader. So when mysterious men in black suits approach and ask her to do one simple job—seduce a man running for governor so they can take down his campaign—she agrees. The job isn’t as easy as she’d expected, though. The men never pay her, and the man running for governor asks her to work as his receptionist. With no better job prospects on the horizon and a debt collector knocking on her door, Jenny agrees. Soon, she finds herself fielding mysterious phone calls, getting threatening faxes, and wondering what, exactly, she’s been caught up in. At the same time, Jenny has to deal with the eccentric characters in her life—her newly engaged mother, the neighbor who’s known for wielding a crossbow in public, the annoyingly perfect moms at school, and everyone else who seems out to get her. But it’s when the mysterious callers threaten what Jenny loves most that her life really starts to spiral out of control. Kennedy excels at writing quirky characters and entertaining dialogue, but what sets the story apart is the shimmering thread of dread that runs through all of Jenny’s thoughts and interactions. Although Kennedy imbues Jenny’s life with the sparkle of humor, the quiet desperation of her sometimes-bleak existence grounds the story in reality.

A grim literary mystery and a hopeful family story, this genre-blending novel manages to be both charming and heartbreaking.

Kirkus Reviews