26 Jun 2019

Pete Townshend’s The Age of Anxiety book cover revealed

The cover for The Age of Anxiety by Pete Townshend has arrived.

Published by Coronet on 5th November, The Age of Anxiety is a great rock novel from one of our most influential musicians.

Pre-order your copy now http://bit.ly/TheAgeofAnxiety

Writing on his Instagram page @yaggerdang, Pete comments, “The art is by Luis Toledo from Madrid and he gave me three choices, all of which were stunning. Check him out on Pinterest. This novel was written to provide the base for a solid libretto for an opera-art-installation I regard as perhaps my last major solo work. I started it in 2008, and some close fans are correct in thinking it grew out of other abandoned projects like The Boy Who Heard Music, and for a while was called Floss. I changed the title because the gravity of the subject seemed ill-served by a title (the name of the heroine) that for Americans in particular evoked dental floss. 🥴. The libretto is complete. The music is composed. The video artists and installation artists are in position. I’m hoping 2021 and 2022 will see me get to realize this project at last.

PS: My publisher is flagging this as a ‘rock novel’. The author is a rock musician, and there are some characters who are in bands, but it is also a mystery story, and a story about drug abuse, being a parent, creativity, anxiety, being blocked as an artist, and the psychic miracles worked by certain women in the story. Believe it or not (and I doubt you will) this is not autobiographical. I’ve done that. But the story is set very much in my world, my work, my neighbourhood, and is inspired by my people.”

• Luis Toledo’s amazing work can be seen here