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Looking back, I realise I′d always been waiting for the arrival of Noel Mewton-Wood. His entrance occurred with such ease that I began to believe he′d always been there, standing in the wings, long before I′d even laid eyes on him.
London, November 1945: at a bohemian party, a young music student meets the charismatic concert pianist Noël Mewton-Wood. The two immediately become lovers, and the affair unleashes an overwhelming passion as grand and sublime as the music they both love.
Ten years on, the student, now a successful writer, reflects on the affair, the forces that shaped him and the one he adored, and the romantic obsession that ruled and almost ruined his life.
This assured, beautifully written debut novel is inspired by the brilliant life of Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood. Sonia Orchard vividly evokes the artistic world of post-war London in a novel of striking illuminations about music and imagination that is also a compelling and deeply moving love story.
′Orchard has composed this novel as much as written it. Music is the spine of this essay on human fragility, as love turns to obsession, aspiration to resignation, laughter to decadence, and beauty to death.′ Christopher Lawrence
Five stars BOOKSELLER+PUBLISHER
′A beautifully nuanced study of the intricate links between sexual desire and musical creativity -- a moving, melancholy and deeply impressive debut′ Gail Jones
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