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Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs

High School

by (author) Sara Quin & Tegan Quin

Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Initial publish date
Oct 2020
Category
Personal Memoirs, LGBT, Composers & Musicians
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781982112684
    Publish Date
    Sep 2019
    List Price
    $17.43 USD
  • Downloadable audio file

    ISBN
    9781982136574
    Publish Date
    Sep 2019
    List Price
    $26.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781982112677
    Publish Date
    Oct 2020
    List Price
    $22.00

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Description

NEW YORK TIMES AND NATIONAL BESTSELLER

First loves, first songs, and the drugs and reckless high school exploits that fueled them—meet music icons Tegan and Sara as you’ve never known them before in this intimate and raw account of their formative years.

High School is the revelatory and unique coming-of-age story of Sara and Tegan Quin, identical twins from Calgary, Alberta, growing up in the height of grunge and rave culture in the ’90s, well before they became the celebrated musicians and global LGBTQ icons we know today. While grappling with their identity and sexuality, often alone, they also faced academic meltdown, their parents’ divorce, and the looming pressure of what might come after high school. Written in alternating chapters from both Tegan’s point of view and Sara’s, the book is a raw account of the drugs, alcohol, love, music, and friendships they explored in their formative years. A transcendent story of first loves and first songs, it captures the tangle of discordant and parallel memories of two sisters who grew up in distinct ways even as they lived just down the hall from one another. This is the origin story of Tegan and Sara.

About the authors

During the course of their twenty-year career, Tegan and Sara have sold well over one million records and released eight studio albums. They have received three Juno Awards, a Grammy nomination, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and the 2018 New York Civil Liberties Union Award. They have performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, from Coachella to the Academy Awards. Outspoken advocates for equality, in 2016 Tegan and Sara created the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for health, economic justice, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women. The sisters currently reside in Vancouver, British Columbia, and split their time between there and Los Angeles, California. Visit them at TeganandSara.com or connect with them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @TeganandSara.

Sara Quin's profile page

During the course of their twenty-year career, Tegan and Sara have sold well over one million records and released eight studio albums. They have received three Juno Awards, a Grammy nomination, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and the 2018 New York Civil Liberties Union Award. They have performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, from Coachella to the Academy Awards. Outspoken advocates for equality, in 2016 Tegan and Sara created the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for health, economic justice, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women. The sisters currently reside in Vancouver, British Columbia, and split their time between there and Los Angeles, California. Visit them at TeganandSara.com or connect with them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @TeganandSara.

Tegan Quin's profile page

Excerpt: High School (by (author) Sara Quin & Tegan Quin)

Editorial Reviews

“What a gift to read the coming-of-age story of the brilliant Tegan and Sara. High School gives us a glimpse into the struggles and triumphs of both sisters as individuals and an evolving band. Their vulnerability, honesty and compassion burst through, and I know will make countless people feel less alone. It is so important for the LGBTQ+ community to have memoirs like this to be able to recognize themselves and be inspired to follow their truth. Oh what I would have done to have this book in high school. I am endlessly grateful to Tegan and Sara for giving so much to this world.”
ELLIOT PAGE, actor and producer

“To navigate the experiential landscape of high school is always an emotional minefield. To have Tegan and Sara unabashedly share the perspective of young lesbians is a rare and invaluable gift, the kind of empathetic education our society is starved for.”
K.D. LANG, singer and songwriter

“Complexly intimate, smartly crafted, and packing a subtle emotional wallop. . . . A quietly heroic origin story.”
Rolling Stone

“Deeply moving, relatable. . . . High School never holds back from the absolute authenticity Tegan and Sara have become known for. I never wanted the book to end.”
CLEA DUVALL, actor and writer

“One of the most interesting and brave coming-of-age stories I have read in many years. Tegan and Sara reveal the confusion, the unraveling of personal truths, the fear, the excitement, the shame, and the seclusion that many of us endure as we make our way through the world. This is also a book about how music saves people, how music gives us a voice and a reason to keep going.”
JANN ARDEN, singer-songwriter and author of Feeding My Mother

“Intense, vulnerable, and life-affirming—everything I’m looking for! Tegan and Sara take us back through their whirlwind journey, densely packed with the intricate complications and the envious, unspoken connection of growing up an identical twin.”
ABBI JACOBSON, comedian and author of I Might Regret This

“It should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever listened to a song by Tegan and Sara, that while not only are they able to convey the raw and complex emotions of the high school experience, the aimlessness of suburban life and the exhilaration of finding your way out, they also speak universal truths about intimacy between families and sisters, friends and lovers. They’ve captured a time and a place so perfectly, I can’t exactly be sure that I wasn’t there.”
BUSY PHILIPPS, actor and author of This Will Only Hurt a Little

“A genius memoir. Tegan and Sara are massively gifted songwriters, so it shouldn’t have shocked me like it did. There’s simply nothing like it. It’s a completely original, utterly gripping, gorgeously written, and captivating memoir that must be read. Tegan and Sara are bold, brilliant storytellers. High School is the freshest, most beautiful and fearlessly powerful coming-of-age memoir.”
AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS, New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors and Toil & Trouble

“Tegan and Sara have pulled back the curtain on a formative chapter in their lives and offer a gloriously dizzying, richly observed account of how they became who they are today and what inspired the music we’ve come to know and love. Funny, frank, and so very cool, High School is basically the teenage best friend I always wanted growing up.”
DAN LEVY, actor, writer, and producer

“Candid, tender, courageously honest, and heartbreakingly familiar; I could see myself and my own experience reflected in these stories, more so than in anything else I’ve ever read. Reading this book moved me deeply.”
JULIEN BAKER, singer and songwriter

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