Song lyrics and melodies float through “Wait for Me,” Read With Jenna’s March 2026 book club pick. The audiobook edition makes it possible to actually hear them.
The novel follows two folk singers born decades apart and the ties they have to one another. Marijohn Shaw grows up listening to the music of Elle Harlow, who disappeared at the height of her fame as a folk singer. Their lives connect further as Marijohn pursues her own music career.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Amy Jo Burns says when she was writing the character of Elle, snippets of phrases came to her.
“I don’t know what happened here. This isn’t a book. It isn’t anything,” Burns remembers thinking. “Then I realized I was writing song lyrics.”
It’s one thing to read Elle’s lyrics and quite another thing to hear it. The novel’s audiobook features full productions of Elle’s music, using Burns’ lyrics and music composed by Mark Sanderlin, who also performs.
Gail Shalan, an award-winning audiobook narrator, performs as Marijohn, and Patti Murin, who originated the role of Anna in Broadway’s “Frozen,” performs as Elle.
In a video shared to Macmillan.audio, Burns reacts to hearing one of the songs she wrote come to life.
“I have to pause. It’s just incredible,” she says through tears. “There couldn’t be something better for Elle.”
Macmillan audio producer Ally Demeter, who went to school to become a music producer, was eager to take on the project.
“This was kind of like my love for books and music coming together as one, and being able to make that for the listeners is just honestly a dream come true,” she says.
Sanderlin, meanwhile, had “never done anything” as intricate as this project.
“Most of the time, when I’ve been asked to sing in audio books, it’s been either public domain songs or something made up on the fly,” he says.
Instead, he was able to compose entire original songs. Getting started, he looked at a playlist Burns made and felt an immediate connection to her influences — Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
“I got the playlist, and I went, ‘Oh, this is all the stuff that I used to listen to in my dad’s truck growing up. I know exactly how to do this.’ Taking some of those influences and then applying them to the music was really a fun challenge for me,” he says.
While composing, Sanderlin says he would play the demos on walks around New York and fix melodies. Then, he would send the clips to Demeter.
“I would just get goosebumps right away, like, this is incredible. I can’t believe this is happening for our audio book,” Demeter remembers thinking.
Finally, once the songs were done, Murin, Shalan and Sanderlin spent a day recording over 30 portions of music. Tiny details from the book inspired the music’s texture. For example, Murin asked to take the music down a step because “it would fit better with the way Elle’s voice is described” in the book, Sanderlin recalls.
Demeter says she “always reads reviews” and has been overwhelmed by the response to the final product, with many saying the music “brings the story to life.”
“They just can’t believe that this is happening in an audio book. And it just shows that we need to keep pushing forward with the creative medium and just make audiobooks stand out,” she says.
But it was Burns’ reaction that affirmed “she did her job right,” Demeter says.
“She was so thankful and appreciative and said, ‘It couldn’t have been anything more,'” she says. “She was so thankful that we cared so much about the characters in the book and the music in the book.”
For now, the “Wait for Me” soundtrack exists only in the audiobook — for listeners, that is.
“I’ll still sometimes get the song stuck in my head, because they’re just so good,” Demeter says. “I have them on my computer, so if I’m ever needing Elle Harlow or Marijohn Shaw, I can just click their song and listen.”
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