Rare Singles

Selected as a book of 2024 by the Guardian, New Statesman and Good Housekeeping

'A meditation on grief, love and the redemptive power of music' Observer 'A tale of soul music and second chances' Guardian 'A book of rare charm by a writer who understands the magic of music' Ian Rankin

Dinah has always lived in Scarborough. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, her one release comes at her town's Northern Soul nights, where she gets to lose herself in the classics.

Over in Chicago, Bucky Bronco has been down on his luck since the loss of his beloved Maybelle. The best he can hope for is to make ends meet, and try and stay high. But then an invitation arrives, from someone he's never met, to come to somewhere he's never heard of. In need of the cash, Bucky boards a plane.

And so he finds himself in rainy Scarborough, where everyone seems to know who is - preparing to play for an audience for the first time in nearly half a century...