Instant Classic is a page-turning queer love story and perfect bookclub pick. It is set across two timelines and explores the world of Hollywood as well as women's basketball.
Marion May is in desperate need of a win. She's directed two films, both flops. And if she can't land the third, she may never get to make another. But she was put here to make movies, she knows it, she just needs to convince everyone else.
Fate or good fortune takes Marion to a Lakers game, where she is sat beside Jaz Jones. Graceful and magnetic, exactly as a WBNA player should be, Jaz is hard to ignore, and she has a pitch for Marion's next film: her coach's story.
Harper Kidd was a rising star of the women's basketball world in the 1950s until one night when everything unravelled and she was forced to leave the game and the team she so loved. It is not until a young, fiercely talented Jaz enters her world that Harper finds her way back to the court and to herself.
Marion is hooked. On Harper's story, on Jaz, on the way she feels when she's in their world. Inspired by these women who fought to play, to be seen and to love, Marion begins to see that making movies might be only one part of who she is.
Kate Fagan's Instant Classic is a love letter to women's sports and queer identity. It explores how the stories we tell can bridge decades, heal old wounds, and lead us back to who we truly are.
'A book about movies, romance, basketball, parents and parent-figures, and how a rich life can be lived even if the world is against you.' Booklist