Pinterest tracking pixel
If you are having difficulty navigating this website please contact us at member.services@bookofthemonth.com or 1-877-236-8540.
Oops! The page didn’t load right. Please refresh and try again.
All booksHistorical fictionThe People We Keep
The People We Keep by Allison Larkin
Historical fiction

The People We Keep

Early Release
This is an early release that's only available to our members—the rest of the world has to wait to read it.

by Allison Larkin

Quick take

Like the perfect summer mixtape, a coming of age story about hitting the open road and finding yourself along the way.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Inspirational

    Inspirational

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_ForbiddenLove

    Forbidden love

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Teen

    Teens

  • Illustrated icon, Icons_Quest

    Quest

Why I love it

Rachel Bilson
Actress and host of "Welcome to the OC, Bitches!" podcast

The bright sunburst on the cover of The People We Keep might make you think this is just another breezy summer read, but don’t be fooled. Between its covers lies a heartbreaker of a story about one wayward teen, the family she finds, and a love of music that keeps her fighting even when the universe won’t stop throwing punches.

We first meet April in the old trailer her father has basically abandoned, living on Pop-Tarts and songwriting, trying desperately to break out of her small town. Then one day chance strikes and April finds herself city-bound. A small fish in a big pond, she nonetheless finds friends, a job at the quaint Cafe Decadence, and even a touch of romance. But April, vulnerable from some hard knocks, can’t seem to let her walls down and love in.

What I loved about this story is the way that April keeps moving to the beat of her own drum despite setbacks and travails. I didn’t agree with every choice she made but I could understand why she made them and it kept me excited on every page to see what she might get up to next. For all the hard questions it poses, The People We Keep is ultimately about resilience, compassion, and the fact that the good folks really are out there—if we can just find the courage to give them a chance.

Read less

Synopsis

Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school, picking up shifts at Margo’s diner, she’s left fending for herself in a town where she’s never quite felt at home. When she “borrows” her neighbor’s car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that’s all hers.

Driving without a chosen destination, she stops to rest in Ithaca. Her only plan is to survive, but as she looks for work, she finds a kindred sense of belonging at Cafe Decadence, the local coffee shop. Still, somehow, it doesn’t make sense to her that life could be this easy. The more she falls in love with her friends in Ithaca, the more she can’t shake the feeling that she’ll hurt them the way she’s been hurt.

As April moves through the world, meeting people who feel like home, she chronicles her life in the songs she writes and discovers that where she came from doesn’t dictate who she has to be.

This lyrical, unflinching tale is for anyone who has ever yearned for the fierce power of found family or to grasp the profound beauty of choosing to belong.

Read less

Preview

Get an early look from the first pages of The People We Keep.

Read a sample →

Member thoughts

All (20483)
All (20483)
Love (12755)
Like (6870)
Dislike (858)
20880 ratings
  • 61% Love
  • 33% Like
  • 4% Dislike
    Historical fiction
    • Lessons in Chemistry
    • The People We Keep
    • Malibu Rising
    • The Last Russian Doll
    • Hang the Moon
    • The Attic Child
    • The Book of Longings
    • Hester
    • The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
    • The Nightingale
    • Daisy Jones & The Six
    • The Lincoln Highway
    • The Circus Train
    • Peach Blossom Spring
    • Booth
    • Sisters in Arms
    • The Perishing
    • The Postmistress of Paris
    • Portrait of a Scotsman
    • The Family
    • Things We Lost to the Water
    • Still Life
    • Send for Me
    • The Magnolia Palace
    • China Room
    • Summer of '69
    • This Tender Land
    • All the Light We Cannot See
    • The Vanishing Half
    • Outlawed
    • The Four Winds
    • The Giver of Stars
    • The Fountains of Silence
    • The Night Tiger
    • Libertie
    • The Clockmaker's Daughter
    • A Gentleman in Moscow
    • The Great Alone
    • The Age of Light
    • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
    • The Paris Hours
    • The Heart's Invisible Furies
    • The Rules of Civility
    • Circling the Sun
    • The Moor's Account
    • The Flight Portfolio
    • Jacqueline in Paris
    • Don't Cry for Me
    • The Christie Affair
    • The Good Left Undone
    • Take My Hand
    • Bloomsbury Girls
    • The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
    • Bronze Drum
    • Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?