The Song Is You (Random House), Arthur Phillips’ latest glittering release, is a match for contemporary romantics. Do you ever crank up your iPod and let a particular song deliver you back to a crystallized moment in your memory? There’s nothing like reeling in heartbreak to “Closer” by Kings of Leon or remembering a first date by a Mika tune.

Phillips’ novel tugs at the heartstrings in all the right ways: hope, bliss, despair, and anguish. It echoes the mechanics of the always mysterious human heart. When Julian Donahue, whose marriage is in shambles, hears rising singer Cait O’Dwyer’s harmonious voice in a Brooklyn bar, he becomes infatuated with her. This masterpiece for the hip 20th-century set is at once urgent and haunting in its singular exploration of the irrevocable ties of music and love.