Dolly Parton to release first novel in 2022

The ‘Jolene’ country star co-authoring book with bestselling author James Patterson

Dolly Parton is working on her first novel.

The book, titled Run, Rose, Run, is expected to be published by Penguin Random House in the UK and Little, Brown in the US on 7 March 2022.

Co-authored by American fiction writer James Patterson, it’s based on a young woman’s life. The story focuses on Rose, a young musician who moves to Nashville to pursue her dreams as a musician, but encounters “danger and desire”.

On Patterson’s website, the mystery novel is described as “a thriller about a young singer/songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive”.

Parton will release a new album with the book in the spring, featuring 12 original tracks. “All new songs were written based on the characters and situations in the book,” Parton said in a statement.

Patterson said: “It’s been an honour – 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 is not Parton’s first book. She co-authored the memoir Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, which was released last year, and has authored semi-autobiographical self-help books, such as Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You, which was released in 2012.

Parton is the owner of a theme park called Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. She has won 10 Grammy Awards for her music. The singer, 75, recently showed her solidarity with Britney Spears, saying, “I went through a lot of that myself”.

Patterson is an Edgar Award-winning writer who recently collaborated with former US president Bill Clinton for a novel called The President Is Missing.