Lo Fi

Riggs’s lusty first novel follows an aspiring singer-songwriter in Nashville’s booze-soaked music scene during the mid-2000s. Shortly after graduating from the University of Michigan, Alison “Al” Hunter takes a job working the door at a hip Nashville club called The Venue. On the surface, she seems to be having a good time scoring drinks, drugs, sex, and guest list spots, but underneath she’s full of melancholy. Her old college flame Nick, lead singer of a buzzy new band, has pretty much moved on from her, and she’s struggling to write songs after a disastrous open-mic performance a month earlier. The plot thickens when Nick shows up at The Venue one stormy night, though it leads to a predictable denouement concerning Al’s determination to find her own voice. Riggs is best in her sardonic depictions of her protagonist’s milieu, delineating Nashville’s desperate strivers, hipster know-it-alls, and slick industry insiders, all of whom are outnumbered by the huge crowds that show up for cover bands (“People are suckers for nostalgia, for the VH1 days, for getting drunk with a purpose on an otherwise dreary night”). Music lovers will devour this. Agent: Andrianna deLone, CAA. (July)