Celadon Books is excited to announce the acquisition of THE GREATS by Amy Jo Burns, author of previous novels MERCURY (Celadon Books, 2024) and SHINER, and the memoir CINDERLAND.
Burns' new novel follows young folk singer Elle Harlow, who, at the height of her career in 1973, gives the performance of her life then vanishes without a trace. Two decades later, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw is spending her summer pumping gas, writing songs on her broken mandolin, and longing for a mother. When a meteor strikes the woods of their sleepy Pennsylvania town and a piece of Elle’s past emerges from the wreckage, the truth of her disappearance sets fire to everything Marijohn believes about herself, her music, and her ability to love with abandon. THE GREATS is an unapologetic, deeply emotive story set in Appalachia and Nashville that defies the trope of the missing woman and gives us a female duo who can find hope in each other and sing the ache in every good song.
“I am thrilled to be continuing to publish Amy Jo Burns!" says President and Publisher Deb Futter, who acquired the book from Meredith Kaffel Simonoff at The Gernert Company. "MERCURY, a Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick and an Indie Next pick, is a heartbreaker in the best sense of that word, and THE GREATS showcases that same pull on the heartstrings in a singular story about a female folk star and how she reinvents herself."
THE GREATS is scheduled to be published in April 2026.
