Allison Larkin

The People We Keep

“One of the most compelling and determined protagonists I’ve met in a long time. April had me on the first page and hasn’t let me go yet. Her quest to heal deep childhood wounds and find her true place in the world is one that will resonate with every reader."

Allison Larkin has created the perfect tribute to the healing power of music, the road, and the souls we meet along the way, those who truly belong to us."

—Brunonia Barry, New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader and The Fifth Petal

Praise

“In sparkling and unflinching prose, Larkin spins a propulsive story about friendship and intimacy, love and loss, and the healing power of art. A big-hearted and deeply moving novel.”
—Bruce Holsinger, author of The Gifted School

“Raw, emotional, and deeply consuming, The People We Keep is the kind of novel that sticks in your soul. Allison Larkin brings insight and emotion to this take of a young woman’s odyssey, creating characters so believable you’ll almost start Googling them to find out if they’re real.”
—Ann Mah, bestselling author of The Lost Village

“Raw, surprising and ultimately uplifting, Allison Larkin’s The People We Keep will break your heart a million different ways before putting it back together again.”
- Julia Claiborne Johnson, author of Be Frank with Me and Better Luck Next Time

“Tender, tragic, and triumphant. Allison Larkin has created a cast of characters in The People We Keep that thrums with realism—stripped bare, naked humanity—and a story that stings of what it means to build the family you need when life doesn’t give that to you from birth. This is a story you will never forget. I loved it with all my heart.”
- Therese Walsh, author of The Moon Sisters

About allison

Allison Larkin is the internationally bestselling author of the novels, Stay, Why Can’t I Be You, and Swimming for Sunlight. Her short fiction has been published in the Summerset Review and Slice, and nonfiction in the anthologies, I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship and Author in Progress.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, with her husband, Jeremy.

PRESS

“Larkin writes from the heart about yearning, giving readers characters to fall in love with, while grabbing them with her honest, believable prose.

—Diablo Magazine

“The People We Keep is ultimately about resilience, compassion, and the fact that the good folks really are out there—if we can just find the courage to give them a chance.”
—Rachel Bilson, Book of the Month Club Pick

“Both hopeful and heartbreaking, The People We Keep follows a young songwriter in the ‘90s healing through music and searching for connection in the world.”
—Parade

"At turns heartbreaking and hopeful, Allison Larkin’s diverse cast of characters reminds us of how love comes in many forms and true family turns up for us when least expected—all we have to do is let them in.”
— Elaine & Luisa’s Picks for Summer 2021, Book Passage

“Music and the generosity of strangers provide healing in Larkin’s emotionally expansive latest…This hopeful story will move readers.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Larkin has created a memorable character in April, whose journey toward belonging and self-acceptance will resonate with readers. The depiction of the mid-1990s is pitch-perfect and will invoke feelings of nostalgia, especially in Gen Xers who came of age during this era. Fans of Caitlin Moran’s How to Build a Girl will enjoy traveling alongside April.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“The People We Keep is intimate, urgent and direct; April's first-person voice is magnetic, compelling… This is a novel of great empathy, about connections and coming of age, built families and self-acceptance. It contains heartbreak and redemption, and a plucky, irresistible protagonist… [A] propulsive, empathetic novel.”

—Shelf Awareness

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Press Kit

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The Book

The bestselling author of the “moving, humorous, and utterly absorbing novel” (Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Swimming for Sunlight returns with a heartbreaking and soul-stirring coming-of-age tale about a young songwriter longing to find a home in the world.

Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a run-down motorhome, flunking out of school, and picking up shifts at the local diner. But when April realizes she’s finally had enough—enough of her selfish, absent father and barely surviving in an unfeeling town—she decides to make a break for it. Stealing a car and with only her music to keep her company, April hits the road, determined to live life on her own terms.

She manages to scrape together a meaningful existence on the road, encountering people and places that grab hold of her heart. From lifelong friendships to tragic heartbreaks, April chronicles her journey in the beautiful music she creates as she discovers that home is with the people you choose to keep.

“Larkin knows her characters so well,” (Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park) and brings her “tender, and real” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & The Six) prose to this unflinching, lyrical tale that is perfect for anyone who has ever yearned for the fierce power of belonging or to understand the profound beauty of a family found along the way.