2 A.M. At The Cat's Pajamas

"If this enchanting first novel — which takes place over the course of one eventful day, the eve of Christmas Eve — were displayed as a Venn diagram, the place where the large cast of meticulously drawn characters overlaps is at a legendary Philadelphia jazz club called The Cat’s Pajamas, and the person who connects them all is 9-year-old Madeleine Altimari, whose dearest wish is to be a jazz singer — when we first meet her she’s smoking a cigarette and teaching herself to shimmy. Inventive, gorgeously written and unforgettable, this is a novel that fans of character-driven fiction will treasure."