Set among the Malibu mansions and Hollywood rock clubs of California's southland, Never Break the Chain finds Tim Green's grief over the loss of his father spinning into an obsessive quest to track down the wayward mother who deserted him almost three decades before. It's a journey that, like Believe in Me before it, sends Green venturing deep into the heart of the rock and roll jungle.
Opening a few months after the end of Believe in Me, Never Break the Chain lands Green in the oceanfront Malibu compound of British guitarist Blake Saunders, who's just hired him to pen an authorized biography of his floundering, formerly-huge arena rock band. Even as the highly combustible Saunders' son Mal-recently installed as the band's new lead singer-and daughter Jane offer him distorted reflections of himself, Green's efforts to retrace his mother's steps through LA's rock and roll underworld propel him toward a cathartic confrontation. The revelations to come challenge every answer he once thought he possessed to the most fundamental question of all: who is Tim Green?
Equal parts family drama, literate thriller, and peek behind the curtain of an aging rock band, Never Break the Chain is ultimately a story about families-the ones we're born into, and the ones we create.
Praise for Never Break the Chain:
"Rock writer Jason Warburg ties up some loose ends with his latest Tim Green novel, Never Break the Chain. His charming protagonist is still threading the road to self-knowledge by poetically and amusingly examining the lives of others in this tale of excess and success. Best of all, a turn in the story resolves the mystery of who Tim Green really is. It's the magic of music that takes us there, along with Warburg's very entertaining style."
-- Viola Weinberg, Poet Laureate emerita of Sacramento & former KZAP FM News Director
"A beautiful book... Never Break the Chain is a novel about family life and the ties that bind people together. It is not easy to write about music and the life of musicians in a convincing way, but Jason Warburg never misses a beat. Warburg understands how music can play a major part in the staging posts of people's lives."
-- Greg Spawton, co-founder & songwriter, Big Big Train
About the Author: Music has played a central role in Jason Warburg's life since he sat in his older brothers' bedroom at age three listening to them play "A Hard Day's Night" over and over again. A recovered political junkie, in his 30s he moved into the non-profit world, while enjoying a parallel career as a music writer. The latter includes 20 years with independent music review site The Daily Vault, where he has served as editor since 2003. He is the author of more than 700 album reviews, interviews and features, in addition to dozens of op-ed pieces and speeches. Jason describes his 2011 novel Believe in Me as a story not just centered around but "infused with" music, a journey across America populated by musical figures both real and imagined, whose outcome ultimately hinges on the healing power of rock and roll. My Hearts Sings the Harmony: Twenty Years of Writing About Music, a collection of more than 100 album reviews, artist interviews and essays about music that Jason sums up as "a love letter to rock & roll," was published in 2016. Warburg's latest novel Never Break the Chain (2017) is a sequel to Believe in Me.
