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Love, Like Apples

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What to expect

A lyrical, deeply felt story of an artist and the great love that defined his life, set against the electric, delirious backdrop of 1970s New York City and the tumultuous years prior—for readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Kristin Hannah.

"A wonder of a book.” -Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here

Growing up motherless and under the cruel eye of his alcoholic, emotionally distant father, Tiller Loomis seems destined for a hardscrabble life. In the 1960s, the small Appalachian town of Sawyer, Tennessee offers few opportunities outside of working arduous hours on his family’s apple orchard. The one ray of light is his older brother Smith, a compassionate and gentle boy who salvages what might have otherwise been a brutal childhood. Kindness, he teaches Tiller, is a choice.

But when Smith is drafted into the Vietnam War, Tiller’s world collapses. Directionless and grief-stricken, he stumbles into a children’s puppet show at his church and ultimately finds purpose and joy through the strange, tender art of puppetry. Chasing his dream of puppeteering full time, Tiller lands in the gritty, graffitied, bohemian hothouse of 1977 New York City, where experimental artists and misfit idealists are using puppets to try to reach teens with a message of hope on a PBS show called Imagine Nation. In Imagine Nation’s cast, Tiller finds a chosen family of dreamers and creators who will change his life forever, chief among whom is the beautiful Julie DiFrancesca, a fiercely vivacious woman who offers Tiller a chance at a life he never thought possible.

Narratively framed as a present-day documentary production about Imagine Nation, Love, Like Apples takes us from the 1970s into the modern era, tracing how the ripples from one controversial but forgotten TV show and a complicated love affair continue outward over decades, while also exploring the indelible power of radical empathy and the lives of the artists who carry its flame in their hearts.

Critics Review

“Jeff Zentner knows what a strange vessel the heart can be, and he articulates it perfectly when he writes, ‘it can be full and broken all at once.’ In Love, Like Apples, a powerful look at the hopeful act of making art, Zentner looks to the past, and it's a testament to his wonderful heart that he can write about love in ways that never shy away from pain but knows so intimately how it can save us. A wonder of a book.”—Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Run for the Hills
"This is absolutely Jeff Zentner's best novel yet. Written with extraordinary heart, Love, Like Apples is funny, tender, and the rare kind of story that leads you to a better version of yourself. What a wondrous ode to the undying power of art." —Amy Jo Burns, author of Wait for Me
"Love, Like Apples is an intimate epic of creators and creativity, culture and counterculture, love (of course) and loss, written—beautifully, I might add, sentence by sentence—with a heartfelt earnestness that I found utterly disarming right from the first pages. Jeff Zentner has persuasively brought back to detailed life the final decades of the twentieth century and peopled his novel with an array of characters you'll find yourself caring about and rooting for."—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer's English
“A love song to the best of humanity—the lovers, the dreamers, and the creative hearts—and a rallying cry for art that illuminates life’s darkest moments, Love, Like Apples will break your heart and gently stitch it back together. For anyone who’s ever welled up during Rainbow Connection, get ready to fall in love with Imagine Nation.”—Daria Lavelle, author of Aftertaste
PRAISE FOR JEFF ZENTNER AND COLTON GENTRY'S THIRD ACT

"Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zentner is a fantastic book filled with incredible characters. Country music star Colton Gentry's life is going perfectly, until the death of his close friend and a Jim Beam-fueled speech he gives while on stage at a giant show has Colton returning to his hometown in Kentucky. It's there that Colton reconnects with Luann, the first woman he ever loved, and has him thinking that maybe his best days aren't all behind him quite yet. Told through three alternating timelines—high school, his rise to fame, and the present—Colton Gentry's Third Act is a novel packed with feels that will have you laughing while reading one page and then crying while reading the next. A beautiful story of love, growth, and second (or, you know, third, fourth, sometimes fifth) chances, you'll be cheering Colton on right through the book's fantastic end."—Isaac Fitzgerald, TODAY Show
"Jeff Zentner has a knack for finding poetry in everyday situations. . .The narrative weaves between Colton’s come-up, adolescence, and present, stitching heartbreak, grief, and hope into one devastating arc that will leave a smile on your face even as it draws out a tear."—Vanity Fair
“Reading Colton Gentry's Third Act feels like sitting down with old friends to your favorite home-cooked meal, reminiscing late into the night and laughing giddily by the time the sun comes up. It's warm and comforting, and brimming with a heady nostalgia that will transport you right back to your own youthful summers and life-changing firsts. A story of love, healing, and second chances that's not to be missed.” —Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and Book Lovers
“Country music was born to tell stories and so was Jeff Zentner. Colton Gentry's Third Act is fueled by a broken heart, and a determination to heal through hard work, forgiveness, and grit—just like the very best country songs. Keep this one on repeat.”—Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Celebrants
"What a book! A beautiful, hard-earned triumph. Jeff Zentner has delivered a story that is as raw as it is real, with dialogue that sings straight from the pages, and a redemptive love story that will make your heart ache. Charming and defiant, Colton Gentry’s Third Act will strum at your heartstrings as it tells its tale of redemption, transformation, and true love."—Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of The Paradise Problem
"Like the best country love songs, Colton Gentry's Third Act breaks your heart, stitches it back together, and makes you want to hear the story over and over just to feel something. This is the book Jeff Zentner was born to write." 
 —Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author of Cutting Teeth
“I came out with my heart both shattered and full. Damn it, but this book has it all—an intensely likable character, a heartbreaking story, and achingly beautiful writing.”—Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Author Jeff Zentner
Narrator Charlie Thurston
Duration 11 hours
Release Date
ISBN 9781668658956
Format Audiobook
Publisher Hachette Audio
Genre Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Sense of place
Availability US

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