Country music legend Dolly Parton and novelist James Patterson are writing a novel together.
Parton and Patterson’s Run, Rose, Run will be published by Little, Brown next spring, the press announced in a news release. Parton will release a companion album at the same time.
The novel will follow “a young woman who comes to country music’s capital city to pursue her music-making dreams,” Little, Brown said. “The source of her heart-wrenching songs is a brutal secret she has done everything to hide. But the past she has fled is reaching out to control her future—even if it means destroying everything she has worked for.”
Parton said she “cannot be more excited” to make her fiction debut. Patterson struck a similar chord, saying, “It’s been an honor—and a hell of a lot of fun—to work with the inimitable Dolly Parton, whom I’ve long admired for her music, her storytelling, and her enormous generosity. The mind-blowing thing about this project is that reading the novel is enhanced by listening to the album and vice versa. It’s a really unique experience that I know readers (and listeners) will love.”
This isn’t the first time Patterson has worked with a celebrity co-author. He collaborated on two novels, The President Is Missing and The President’s Daughter, with former President Bill Clinton.
Run, Rose, Run is slated for publication on March 7, 2022.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
