Pantheon Books

We had Joshua Henkin put together a Spotify playlist of the songs that inspired him while writing The World Without You. Give it a listen while kicking back with this perfect summer read.

“Motel Matches,” “Couldn’t Call it Unexpected Number 4,” “Radio Sweetheart,” and “Big Sister’s Clothes,” Elvis Costello. In case you can’t tell, I’m a huge Elvis fan. I chose these four songs almost at random (well, not quite), and I could have chosen almost any other four. It’s weird, because Elvis is a punster, and I’m very much not a punster, but what works in a song is often quite different from what works in fiction. I remember hearing Elvis play an amazing rendition of “Radio Sweetheart” at the Greek Theater in Berkeley when I was in my early twenties. “Couldn’t Call it Unexpected Number 4” is not a particularly well-known song of his—it’s the last track on the underrated Mighty Like a Rose album—but it’s a beautiful ballad, and my wife and I danced to it at our wedding. “Big Sister’s Clothes” is mentioned in The World Without You when Noelle muses on how she loved to borrow her sisters’ clothes. I don’t have a big sister and I’m not a sister myself, but I understand the urge: whenever we go to visit my wife’s sister, my wife is always going through her sister’s closets looking for things to wear.

“Daughter,” Loudon Wainwright. This song is played, predictably, at too many Bat Mitzvahs, but I still like it, and it seems appropriate for The World Without You, a novel, in part, about daughters and daughters-in-law. I heard the song not long before I wrote the scene between Thisbe and Noelle when they go skinny-dipping.

“Choice in the Matter,” Aimee Mann. I loved Aimee Mann when she was in ‘Til Tuesday, and I still love her. “Choice in the Matter” is about a woman who goes over to the house of the guy she’s dating and he won’t press the play button on the phone machine, which is blinking, and so she decides to leave. Seventeen years after its release, the song feels dated (who has phone machines anymore?), and I’m reminded of a conversation I often have with my graduate students about the problems cell phones pose for fiction (fiction is in part about the frustration of desires, and cell phones are about the fulfillment of desires—everyone can be reached instantly), but that doesn’t make the song any less dear to me.

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“With great aplomb, historical novelist Thomas Mallon reimagines the operatic drama of Watergate through the eyes of the gang-who-couldn’t-wiretap-right, filling in the blanks.” — Vanity Fair

Watergate is out today, and to celebrate we’re giving away two copies right here on Tumblr! Anyone who reblogs this post between now and 3pm on Friday (2/24) will be entered in our sweepstakes for a chance to win! Rules and regulations below.

In the meantime, if you’re a Spotify user, click this link to open up our Spotify playlist featuring some of the top hits of 1972 - 1974. Elton John, David Bowie, and Don McClean? Yes please.

About the novel: In Watergate, Thomas Mallon conveys the drama and high comedy of the Nixon presidency through the urgent perspectives of seven characters we only thought we knew before now, moving readers from the private cabins of Camp David to the klieg lights of the Senate Caucus Room, from the District of Columbia jail to the Dupont Circle mansion of Theodore Roosevelt’s sharp-tongued ninety-year-old daughter (“The clock is dick-dick-dicking”), and into the hive of the Watergate complex itself, home not only to the Democratic National Committee but also to the president’s attorney general, his recklessly loyal secretary, and the shadowy man from Mississippi who pays out hush money to the burglars.

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RULES AND REGULATIONS: Offer is only open to U.S. residents (excluding Puerto Rico), age 18 years or older, who have a valid tumblr.com account. Users must be tumblr.com followers of Pantheon Books to be eligible. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. In the case of a dispute over the identity of an entrant, the authorized account holder of the tumblr.com account used to enter will be deemed to be the entrant. Pantheon Books is not responsible for lost/late/misdirected entries or computer malfunctions. Entries that contain errors, are incomplete, corrupted or illegible will not be accepted. Pantheon Books reserves the right to disqualify entries from anyone tampering with the tumblr.com entry process. Pantheon Books assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to tumblr.com. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late or misdirected tweets; computer malfunctions, including but not limited to any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission or communications line failure; or theft, destruction or unauthorized access to entrant’s tumblr.com account. Entries that contain errors, are incomplete, corrupted or illegible will not be accepted. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify entries from anyone tampering with the tumblr.com entry process.
ELIGIBILITY: This sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) over the age of 18 at time of entry. All federal, state, and local regulations apply. Void where prohibited. Employees of Random House, Inc., its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, and agencies, and their immediate family members and persons living in their household are not eligible to enter this sweepstakes.
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