Listen to My Heart: Life, Love, and Roxette

Singer-songwriter Fredriksson (1958–2019) offers a heartbreakingly candid recollection of her early life, pop career, and struggle with illness in this posthumous memoir. Born the youngest of five in Ossjo, Sweden, in 1958, Marie and her siblings endured poverty, a sister’s death, and their father’s alcoholism, before Marie discovered in early adolescence that she “couldn’t live without singing.” Describing herself as “a whirlwind of emotions craving an outlet,” Fredriksson recalls moving to Stockholm and eventually forming Roxette with her friend Per Gessle in 1985; the duo went on to score four Billboard Hot 100 hits, including 1988’s “Listen to Your Heart.” After marrying musician Mikael Bolyos and starting a family, Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002. She recounts undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments and feeling immense pain while continuing to tour and record for the next 17 years. Fredriksson more than delivers on her stated mission to “share her moments of transcendence and offer consolation to those full of doubt” by cataloging her favorite performances and refusing to let her diagnosis overshadow her career. Dishy anecdotes about celebrities from Elton John to Frank Sinatra are just the cherry on top. Pop music fans will treasure this. Agent: Rita Karlsson, Kontext Agency. (July)