The Come Apart: A Novel

An authentic rock band story from Chicago to Nashville and, just maybe, back again

On the cusp of turning thirty, Chicago indie musician Maggie Corbin has hustled for a decade, set on making her rock and roll dreams come true. Her band, Spinning Birds, fronted by Maggie and her romantic partner Matt Turkish, releases a debut record to critical acclaim, hits the road, and begins working on a follow-up. From the outside, her path looks like success―but as streaming deconstructs the industry and Maggie’s relationships shift and slip, the question remains: Can you live for art alone?

When a sudden move back to the South forces Maggie to reframe her dreams and reckon with familial rifts and her past―while still fighting to reimagine what her future could be―a natural disaster in Nashville and a surprise encounter with a character from her childhood shift her perspective on healing, community, and the ties that bind. Drifting in and out of songwriting sessions, cozy kitchens, and moments of bearing witness to the curious power of the natural world, The Come Apart celebrates the times when we must come fully undone in order to put ourselves back together.
 

SUSANNAH FELTS is a writer, editor, and cofounder of the Porch, a nonprofit literary arts center in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of the novel This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record, and her writing has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, StorySouth, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She is a contributing writer for Chapter 16 and an editor with SWING, a biannual literary magazine published by the Porch.