{
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    "language": "en-US",
    "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com"
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  "title": "The Ballad Of Speedball Baby",
  "subtitle": null,
  "slug": "the-ballad-of-speedball-baby",
  "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/ali-smith/the-ballad-of-speedball-baby",
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  "markdown": "https://www.bookquiver.com/ali-smith/the-ballad-of-speedball-baby.md",
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Ali Smith",
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  "language": "en_US",
  "original_title": null,
  "original_language": null,
  "first_published": "2024-01-16",
  "genres": [
    {
      "code": "DNB",
      "heading": "Biography: general"
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      "code": "DNP",
      "heading": "Reportage, journalism or collected columns"
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  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/blackstone-publishing/ali-smith/the-ballad-of-speedball-baby_979-82-1291-051-4-af1ea84d.webp?v=2026-11-10%2014%3A40%3A26",
  "description": "As an only child reeling from the demolition of her parents'' toxic marriage, the New York City underground music scene offers a young Ali a different family of misfits and talented outsiders to belong to. She becomes the bass player for edgy band Speedball Baby, a decision that will take her around the world - from onstage at the legendary CBGBs to the red-light district of Amsterdam. She''s often the only girl in a broken-down tour van, being strip-searched at the Croatian border, chased by lunatics, and navigating the seedy underbelly of a male-dominated music scene full of addiction, violence, and misogyny - all while keeping her sharp wit and dark humour intact. Rimmed with heavy black eyeliner and smelling faintly of cheap booze, The Ballad Of Speedball Baby is a pulse-quickening, unpredictable ride through the ''90s music scene - alternately terrifying, hilarious, and painfully evocative - as well as a love letter to the power of female solidarity.",
  "editions": [
    {
      "title": "The Ballad Of Speedball Baby",
      "subtitle": null,
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/ali-smith/the-ballad-of-speedball-baby/9798212910514",
      "publisher": "Blackstone Publishing",
      "publisher_series": [],
      "translators": [],
      "medium": "paper",
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      "narrators": [],
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      "cover_artists": [],
      "isbn": "979-82-1291-051-4",
      "pages": 289,
      "published": "2024-01-16",
      "language": "en_US",
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  "other_languages": [],
  "characters": [],
  "chapters": []
}