This is the epic story of Frankie Presto - the greatest guitar player who ever lived - and the six lives he changed with his six magical blue strings. He makes records. He is adored. But Frankie Presto's gift is also his burden, as he realizes the power of the strings his teacher gave him, and how, through his music, he can actually affect people's lives. At the height of his popularity, tortured by his biggest mistake, he vanishes. His legend grows....

Where's the fine line between darkness and desire, need and oblivion, pain and pleasure? A man as talented as Sinner bass guitarist Jace Seymour needs a woman who can beat out his self-doubt... and a woman as strong as Mistress V needs a man she can't always overpower... In each other's tight embrace, an escape from harsh reality is always a welcome diversion.

Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs.

"Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne....

"In a small New England town over half a century ago, a boy is playing with his new toy soldiers in the dirt in front of his house when a shadow falls over him. He looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Jamie learns later, who with his beautiful wife, will transform the church and the town. The men and boys are a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls, with the Reverend Jacobs--including Jamie's sisters and mother. Then tragedy...

A struggling rock band on the verge of breaking up is touring in the American Southwest when they are noticed by an Iraq War veteran. This crossing of paths changes all their lives.

"When Jeff Pine rents a cabin in the hometown he's been avoiding for fifteen years, he just wants some time away from his rock 'n roll world to figure out his life. Instead he runs into his former BFF--and the inspiration for dozens of love songs--on the first day. Facepalm. Park naturalist Carter Rhodes is a cinnamon roll dressed like a lumberjack. Fame and fortune don't turn his head, but the snarky little nerd who followed him around as a kid?...