Musical Chairs

Winner of the Connecticut Book Award for fiction

“100% page-turning delight…Pull out a lawn chair and prepare to read this gleefully entertaining novel.” (Stephen McCauley, author of My Ex-Life)

The “quick-witted and razor-sharp” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six) author of Limelight and Small Admissions returns with a hilarious and heartfelt new novel about a perfectly imperfect summer of love, secrets, and second chances.

Bridget and Will have the kind of relationship that people envy: they’re loving, compatible, and completely devoted to each other. The fact that they’re strictly friends seems to get lost on nearly everyone; after all, they’re as good as married in (almost) every way. For three decades, they’ve nurtured their baby, the Forsyth Trio—a chamber group they created as students with their Juilliard classmate Gavin Glantz. In the intervening years, Gavin has gone on to become one of the classical music world’s reigning stars, while Bridget and Will have learned to embrace the warm reviews and smaller venues that accompany modest success.

Bridget has been dreaming of spending the summer at her well-worn Connecticut country home with her boyfriend Sterling. But her plans are upended when Sterling, dutifully following his ex-wife’s advice, breaks up with her over email and her twin twenty-somethings arrive unannounced, filling her empty nest with their big dogs, dirty laundry, and respective crises.

With her trademark humor, pitch-perfect voice, and sly perspective on the human heart, Amy Poeppel crafts a love letter to modern family life with all of its discord and harmony. In the tradition of novels by Maria Semple and Stephen McCauley, Musical Chairs is an irresistibly romantic story of role reversals, reinvention, and sweet synchronicity.

There’s lots of music in Musical Chairs!

Here’s a SPOTIFY PLAYLIST you can keep handy and refer to anytime you come across a song/piece in the book that you want to hear. Enjoy!

“Poeppel has created a story that is well thought out, well plotted, well written, and fully developed. A delightful novel that celebrates the messiness and joy to be found in real life.” (Kirkus, Starred Review)

"This story of reinvention has just the right tone for a musical elegy to one family's journey." (Good Morning America, "Top 25 Novels for Summer")

“Amy Poeppel’s charming MUSICAL CHAIRS made me laugh out loud. Poeppel has a remarkable talent for creating the very best kind of mayhem. Drunken dinner parties, a runaway cat, brilliant musicians, a tattooed florist, drop dead gorgeous twins, crumbling old houses, beautiful Connecticut, secrets, lies — and finally — a wedding, the true hallmark of any delicious comedy. Reading this book was such a pleasure.” (Marcy Dermansky, author of VERY NICE)

"In this funny, profound, and brilliantly alive novel about all the messy, wise and wonderful chords that love can strike in our lives, Poeppel gathers together fathers and daughters, old flames and new sparks, music, writing and gardening, to explore what it really means to feel at home, and how life can open you up in ways you never saw coming. Set against the backdrops of Manhattan and the Connecticut countryside, MUSICAL CHAIRS is profound, delicious and soul-stirring." (Caroline Leavitt, New York Times Bestselling Author of PICTURES OF YOU and IS THIS TOMORROW)

“The summer holiday Bridget Stratton did not expect, may turn out to be just what she needs. Bridget's children have returned home, her musical trio is only a duet, her aging father has decided to re-marry, and the house is falling apart. A season of chaos may, however, strike just the right note in this game of life. Full of Amy Poeppel's trademark warmth, wit, and humor, MUSICAL CHAIRS is a literary love song that will leave readers swooning as they wax rhapsodic with the pure joy of reading. Pull up a chair, pour a glass of wine, and let the music take you away.” (Pamela Klinger Horn, Literature Lovers’ Night Out/Excelsior Bay Books)

“Amy Poeppel again shows us how to find joy in even life’s messy moments. Loved every page!” (Andrea Peskind Katz, Frolic/Great Thoughts, Great Readers)

“A delightful ode to contemporary life.” (The Christian Science Monitor)

“Poeppel’s people are a mess, but her writing is crisp and breezy. Where does everyone end up when the music stops? Read and find out.” (BookPage)

"Full of Poeppel's signature charm and wit, MUSICAL CHAIRS is a romantic-comedy-of-errors with a smart, edgy twist on the possibilities that might be revealed in life's third act. Touching, full of humanity, and the absolute definition of 'compulsively readable'!" (Suzanne Rindell, author of THE OTHER TYPIST)

"Every summer reading list needs at least one book you’ll want to binge at the beach or by the pool. MUSICAL CHAIRS...is the perfect escape." (Hello Giggles)

"What kind of writer is Amy Poeppel? Warm, generous, funny, and full of surprises. In her third novel, a large, musical family (and their many friends, lovers, and groundskeepers) assemble in the shabby chicest corner of rural Connecticut over the course of one long, hot summer. What ensues is part classical French farce, part touching family comedy, and 100% page-turning delight. Cue up some chamber music, pull out a lawn chair, and prepare to binge read this gleefully entertaining novel." (Stephen McCauley, author of MY EX-LIFE)

“A charming comedy of errors full of unexpected revelations and unusual events. Poeppel's (Limelight, 2018) lighthearted family story casts a thoughtful eye on the intricacies of relationships while exploring the intersection of art and life. Readers of upmarket ensemble fiction with a dash of humor, à la Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney or Emma Straub, will enjoy Poeppel’s latest.” (Booklist)

Light and quick-to-finish, Musical Chairs—like all of Poeppel’s work—is witty, relatable and well-paced. It’s also a good reminder that, rather than pushing life’s messiness away, sometimes it’s best to embrace it. (PureWow)