Overview

A suspenseful, wildly engaging debut novel by the award-winning author of Rainbow Rainbow, following a musician spiraling in self-doubt and self-searching after a night—and a relationship—gone wrong Songs of No Provenance tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she's forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking—and her complicated history with a friend and mentee—while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member. A propulsive character study of a flawed and fascinating artist, Songs of No Provenance explores issues of trans nonbinary identity, queer baiting and appropriation, kink, fame hunger, secrecy and survival, and the question of whether a work of art can exist separately from its artist.

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9781646222513

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Reviews

""This novel is a wild ride! A ribald romp asking profound questions about art-making, kink, self-deception, repair, and grace. Joan Vole is an unforgettable character and Lydi Conklin is a daring, delightful writer. I’ll read anything they write.” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness ""Songs of No Provenance is an unflinching masterpiece of transgressive empathy. Mining the rawest margins of shame and accountability, Conklin's visceral prose is able to hold even the thorniest facets of human experience with tenderness—which lets us get close enough to see the complex, redemptive possibilities only intimacy (and Conklin's skill) can make visible. This brilliant debut novel is a testimony: the very aspects of ourselves we fear wall us off from others—our kinks, secrets, jealousies, failures—may instead be doors of connection."" —Alissa Nutting, author of Made for Love

Chicago Review of Books, A Most Anticipated Book Debutiful, A Most Anticipated Book of 2025 LGBTQ+ Reads, A Most Anticipated Book Literary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year Library Journal, A Title to Watch ""Songs of No Provenance tenderly examines the fluid nature of gender and sexuality, while intelligently blurring the boundaries of friendship and love."" —Virtuoso Magazine ""Conklin excels at serving up characters whose questionable choices get them in trouble, and Joan tops them all . . . A gratifyingly cross-generational novel, Songs is here for exchange . . . [Conklin's] prose is funny, sly, frank; it bubbles over with mirth . . . Songs is by no means an authorless project, but in bringing this character to indelible life, Conklin has combined the full force of their fictive imagination with the ribald, communal spirit of folk. Joan, wonderful Joan! Prickly, cantankerous, lovable Joan! ""—Megan Milks, 4Columns ""Songs of No Provenance is an astonishing novel, without artifice and unflinching in its presentation of its subject in her full humanity."" —Dontaná McPherson-Joseph, Foreword Reviews ""Conklin’s comedy of manners has a shrewd undercurrent, and much of the novel’s charm derives from the teens’ easy banter with one another . . . It’s a winner."" —Publishers Weekly ""Daring, darkly funny, and laced with rich textural detail, Songs of No Provenance proves that Conklin is just getting started, and anyone interested in the artistic experience should be seeking their work out."" —BookPage ""Conklin’s vivid debut novel, following their story collection Rainbow Rainbow, portrays a complicated musician at a personal and professional crossroads . . . Conklin crafts an absorbing exploration of the push-and-pull of the authentic self."" —Booklist ""Lydi Conklin has gathered up slippery ideas about art-making and desire and mentorship and gender and plunged an antihero for the ages through the heart of them all. Songs of No Provenance is a raw, empathetic novel of exceptional power."" —Carmen Maria Machado ""With emotional precision, an endlessly captivating antiheroine, and surprises at every turn, the radical and profound Songs of No Provenance explores the unruliness of desire, the insatiable need to create, and the truth we owe to ourselves and to those we love. Lydi Conklin is one of my favorite writers and I can’t wait for the world to discover their singular vision."" —Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers ""Thrilling and utterly engrossing, this is an extraordinary debut from a writer endlessly astute about shame, harm, the possibility of repair, and the complexities of ambition. Reading Songs of No Provenance, I thought of D.W. Winnicott saying, 'It is a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found.' Conklin’s novel helps light paths to lead readers out of hiding."" —R. O. Kwon, author of Exhibit ""Joan Vole is an indelible character, flawed and contradictory and utterly compelling. She is the beating heart of Songs of No Provenance, an expansive novel about ambition and art, love and transgression. Lydi Conklin writes with verve, precision, and the kind of tenderness that takes your breath away."" —Katie Kitamura, author of Audition ""Lydi Conklin’s protagonist Joan is unforgettable, a raw-voiced indie musician whose persona is tougher than her heart, and who struggles to understand her own complex identity. This bold, funny, moving novel follows Joan through wild upheaval to unexpected and exhilarating reconciliation."" —Claire Messud, author of This Strange Eventful History ""This novel is a wild ride! A ribald romp asking profound questions about art-making, kink, self-deception, repair, and grace. Joan Vole is an unforgettable character and Lydi Conklin is a daring, delightful writer. I’ll read anything they write.” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness ""Songs of No Provenance is an unflinching masterpiece of transgressive empathy. Mining the rawest margins of shame and accountability, Conklin's visceral prose is able to hold even the thorniest facets of human experience with tenderness—which lets us get close enough to see the complex, redemptive possibilities only intimacy (and Conklin's skill) can make visible. This brilliant debut novel is a testimony: the very aspects of ourselves we fear wall us off from others—our kinks, secrets, jealousies, failures—may instead be doors of connection."" —Alissa Nutting, author of Made for Love

Author Information

LYDI CONKLIN is the author of Rainbow Rainbow, which was long-listed for the Story Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. Their fiction has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, and The Paris Review. They’ve drawn comics for The New Yorker, The Believer, Lenny Letter, and other publications. Songs of No Provenance is their first novel.

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