Holly Brickley ’05 Releases Debut Novel ‘Deep Cuts;’ Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler Starring in Film Adaptation

Just two days after Writing alum Holly Brickley ’05 released her debut novel Deep Cuts, Deadline revealed the feature film adaptation, replete with two movie stars, an acclaimed director, and a tastemaker studio.

Last Tuesday, on February 25, 2025 Brickley’s debut novel hit shelves from Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House. On Thursday February 27, it was announced that Saoirse Ronan (Little Women) and Austin Butler (Elvis) are attached to star in the adaptation from studio A24, with Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) directing and penning the adaptation. Ronan will also serve as a producer, alongside Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, and Josh Safdie. 

Ronan and Butler are two of Hollywood’s brightest young stars, with a cool five Academy Awards nominations between them. A24 is the celebrated studio behind Best Picture winners Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Durkin is an indie darling whose last outing, The Iron Claw starring a career-best Zac Efron, opened to acclaim for A24 in 2023.

The book begins at a college bar in 2000, when a student with a passion for overanalyzing every song she hears meets a student with dreams of indie-rock stardom. The two begin a passionate collaboration (making beautiful music together) that launches his career and leaves her on the sidelines. With a narrative spanning UC Berkeley to the Columbia campus, clubs in San Francisco and bars in Brooklyn, Deep Cuts is a love story about making your mark, and finding your voice. 

In addition to the blockbuster adaptation, early praise for the book has been effusive, with New York Times bestselling author Miranda Cowley Heller calling it, “clever and heart-wrenching and addictive.” New York Times bestseller Peter Ames Carlin declared it, “smart, sensitive and assured,” adding, “Brickley is the real thing.”

In crafting her debut novel, Brickley didn’t hesitate to return to her experiences at UC Berkeley and Columbia in the early aughts. “I basically started with my timeline in terms of schools and jobs,” she said, noting how each campus’s “proximity to concert venues where legendary shows were happening” was a perfect fit for her subject matter. 

However, it wasn’t only narrative utility that drove her to revisit Alma Mater. “There's a scene in the book during the blackout of 2003, when the characters are on the steps of the Low Library in complete darkness, eating melting ice cream handed out by the bodegas on Broadway...how could I not write about that?”

Brickley’s deep dive into the world of music-making also led her to curate a playlist for the novel, one that serves as much more than mere background or period setting for her two leads. “Most book playlists are meant to evoke a mood,” she said, “but this is not that—these songs are actually analyzed in the text, through passages of music journalism woven throughout the narrative.” It’s a track listing that includes everything from “Sara Smile” by Daryl Hall & John Oates (the song that brings the leads together) to Radiohead and Sam Cooke, Outkast and Fleetwood Mac.

The book also makes use of Brickley’s colorful past career in trend research and branding, where she spent years “flying around the country, going into bars and clubs, and finding the coolest people.” While she acknowledges the lifestyle “pulled me away from my writing for many, many years,” it also left an indelible mark on her debut. 

“I recently heard Brian Eno say the key to being an artist is to never get a good job, and I think there's some truth to that—but jobs also give you things to write about. All those experiences went into Deep Cuts,” she said. “So I guess my advice is to take the good job, because it will teach you things you never expected, but don't get so comfortable that you can't walk away.”

Brickley will be on tour with the book from February 26 to March 12, 2025, including stops in old stomping grounds San Francisco and New York, where she’ll be signing books on the Upper East Side on March 6.