Love is Blind is the story of Brodie Moncur, son of a violent and alcoholic clergymen, eldest sibling of a brood of children and talented piano tuner. When the opportunity to live and work in Paris arises he grabs it with both hands, leaving the dark gloom of Peebles and Edinburgh behind. It is here that he meets Lika, she is the girlfriend of John Kilbarron, a famous pianist who employs Brodie to be his own personal piano tuner and he and Lika are instantly attracted to one another. The book travels through France, to Russia and much further afield, taking the reader on a tour of the world at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century.

I love William Boyd's writing and Any Human Heart is one of my most favourite books, but I really struggled with Love Is Blind. I am going to hold my hands up and say that my reading of it was a little disjointed, I had a migraine for five days and couldn't read a thing and then I had some books I had to read for Blog Tour commitments so I dipped in and out of it and this may have had an impact on my overall impression of the book. Saying that though, for those five days where I wasn't reading I didn't miss the book at all although I desperately missed reading.

I think I struggled because I didn't really like Brodie or Lika and I am still unsure what I thought of Brodie as a character. I suppose that he was presented as a fully rounded man who is neither good nor bad and who is capable of both great and awful things but I really struggled to connect with him. In a book where all of the action takes place around one man it makes it difficult to empathise or feel fear or pity at key times in the story. Saying that though, the plot is wonderful and the storytelling is brilliant. It is intricate and clever and I was carried away by the engrossing tale of love and revenge, so much so that I read the second half of the book in one-sitting.

I love a book that spans generations and timelines and for the most part this book scratched that itch. I would have liked to have known more about the places he was living though, the social and political backgrounds would have added more depth perhaps. He spends a lot of time in Russia and mixes in very exalted circles but I couldn't get a feel for the political situation there and my rudimentary knowledge of Russian history tells me it was an interesting time period. I suppose I felt that despite his moving around Europe, I couldn't get a feel for where he was. It was only the descriptions of the food he was eating that provided any depth - and what descriptions they were, completely mouth-watering at times!

William Boyd really excels at wonderful dialogue, conversations between characters never feel jarring and he uses letters from Brodie to his family back home to keep the action moving well. However, at times things felt plodding and some characters appeared who seemed to have no bearing on the story whatsoever. The intricate dance between Brodie and the Kilbarron brothers, John and Malachi, is filled with tension and these unnecessary characters  seemed to take away from rather than add to the what will happen next element. My favourite part of the book was this relationship between these three men and there are moments of brilliance and power that kept me turning the pages.

Despite my difficulties with the book I still think that William Boyd is an astonishing writer and overall I did like Love Is Blind (I have given it 3 stars) but I will say one thing -- there seems to be an obsession with breasts. So many boobs. I was sick of reading about them. Under dressing gowns, pressed flat beneath a blouse, in the bedroom of a brothel - it felt wholly unnecessary and a little juvenile at times to be honest. This is a book about how overpowering love can be and how it can make you do reckless things and whilst I understood Brodie's visceral and primal reaction to Lika it felt incredibly incongruous on occasion. I am not a prude in the slightest and have absolutely no issues with sex scenes in books, but the constant references and observations felt grubby and made me feel more than a little uncomfortable.

In many ways this is up to Boyd's usual high standards and is certainly very readable. However, I finished the book and was left feeling somewhat despondant and slightly disappointed. To say any more would be to give elements of the plot away, but overall I felt it wasn't one of his better books.

This is a book I have been looking for.. The writing is exquisite, the story poignant and the characters fascinating.. It is a long time since I was able to immerse myself in such an experience between the pages of a book. Brodie is a simple man but his adventures are complicated as he follows his heart and instincts to travel the world in pursuit of love. I will recommend this to all my friends, family and book club readers.
It has restored my faith in the magic of a book that can take the reader out of the mundane. The artistry of William Boyd is a salve to all the pressures of life in 21st century. and the fatuousness of our throwaway soundbite society.

Love is Blind by William Boyd is one of the best books that I have read this year. I feel truly blessed to have received an advance copy of this novel, as I truly loved his earlier novel, Any Human Heart. One of my dear friends, believed that the protagonist of Any Human Heart was his inspiration for life and introduced to the novel five years ago. Love is Blind tells the story of Scottish piano tuner Brodie Moncur who happily leaves Edinburgh for a chance to reinvent himeslf in Paris. He falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful and enigmatic Russian soprano - Lika Blum and this affair takes throughout Europe. it was a wonderfully engrossing read and I felt deeply for Moncur and the situations he was placed. Boyd has the gift of making someone, who could at first glance be the most ordinary person into the greatest hero.

I would love to read more novels from Mr Boyd in the future and I thank Net Galley and Penguin for allowing to read an advance copy of the novel.

William Boyd is my sort of writer. His stories are filled with detail and local colour. "Love is Blind" is such a story. Wide ranging across Europe and out to the Andaman Islands far away in the Indian Ocean. The central character is a man with a musical talent for tuning pianos to meet the demands of the greatest soloists in the world.

None of the characters are without flaws. I see them as real people with special talents or ones who don't quite make it. Just like us all really.

Brodie Moncur is a talented piano tuner. The novel follows his life from Scotland to various places including Paris, where he meets his life's love Lika, Russia and Trieste. A wonderful book, the reader wonders if he and Lika will ever find peace and happiness.

Willliam Boyd has a gift for writing fiction that has depth and texture but at the same time is eminently accessible. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, Love Is Blind is in many ways typical of his oeuvre. From the first line the characters draw you into a world that feels detailed, authentic and enticing.

The central character, Brodie Moncur, the eldest son of tyrannical Scottish preacher, has been born with perfect pitch, an ability that enables him to forge a career for himself as a piano-tuner and thereby escape the limitations of his claustrophobic home, first to a job running a piano shop in Paris and later to a list of exotic places across Europe and beyond.

I was never completely convinced by the depiction of Brodie's overwhelming passion, his love for the opera singer he met in Paris, and the low-key ending left me slightly underwhelmed. Nonetheless, it's an entertaining, well-researched and cleverly constructed novel with some good twists. and in many ways it's Boyd's best novel for some years.

Prior to this book, I had never heard of William Boyd- so I was very open-minded about the type of novelist he is. I certainly was not disappointed.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books Uk for giving me the opportunity to read Love is Blind.

Once again William Boyd delivers a superb novel. I never tire of his beautiful language and style of writing. I always feel that I learn something new when I read one of his novels. In this case it was pianos and piano tuning. Can't wait for his next one!

"Love is Blind" is the bittersweet story of Brodie Moncur, a young Scotish man who fixes pianos for a job, in the late 1800s. But the new century is coming, and so are a lot of changes in Brodie's life. He will fall deeply in love with a Russian soprano, Lika, and this love will perpetuate for all his life, through thick and thin, and through difficulti but wonderful times.

I must admit that I've never read anything by William Boyd, I requested a digital copy of this book only becuase I'm a sucker for historical ficiton set in the 1800s in England, but this story is so much more.
First of all because it is set all around the world, and that solely is truly fascinating. And Boyd has a wonderful way with words. He has the magical ability to create vivid settings (more than vivid characters), and for this reason I was fully in the story.
The characters were a little bit flat in my opinion. The love in the title really is blind, cause the two main characters meet once and are already in love, but I can get over that, it seems believable considering the strong passions of that time. Love was very different from what we experience today, and at the same time purer, in my opinion.
Lika was... Lika. I didn't truly comprehend her reasons and the plot twist was a little bit predictable for me, we had all the clues, but at the same time I truly don't understand why she did what she did.
The story in certain points seemed to drag a little too much for my tastes, and the same events took place over and over again. And then again.
The ending too was quite clichey but at the same time frustrating.
But beside that I'm glad I've read this book, it's a fascinating story for sure, set in a wonderful time in our history.

William Boyd has done a great deal of research for this book as is evident throughout. Piano tuning is well detailed if not over done. Brodiecamoncur is the piano tuner who initially moves to Edinburgh to escape his overbearing father. From there his expertise takes him to Paris from where he is lured to Russia by a malevolent gentleman who is courting his piano tuning skillls. He falls in love then has to flee Russia becoming a man on the run consumed with consumption
This is not an easy read.

Curses! When I know I have to review a book I try not to read a review until I’ve written mine. Imagine my chagrin when, sitting peacefully eating lunch and reading Private Eye, I found that the current issue’s victims of ‘What You Didn’t Miss Pt.94’ are William Boyd and Sebastian Faulks. The Eye’s literary pages exist only to condemn. Much is fair game, e.g. celebrity memoirs by people you’ve never heard of but the writers really like to get their blue-pencil-and-knife-wielding claws into an esteemed literary author. (For as long as I’ve been reading the magazine they’ve had it in for Martin Amis.) In this issue (1479), William Boyd’s Love is Blind is linked with Faulks’ Paris Echo, each book having the alleged fault of ‘La Surabondance de Detail’, as a Paris restaurant is amusingly named in the clever pastiche of the books.

I disagree that there can be too much detail (of the kind the writer describes) in a novel. Writers! Don’t, please, tell me ‘she was well dressed’, ‘the garden was full of bright flowers’ or ‘they ate their meal in silence’. The novelist who doesn’t describe what the lady wore, which flowers were in the garden and what the characters ate is in my opinion failing in his or her duty to the reader. There is a lot of detail in Love is Blind, for example about piano tuning, but I found it anything but boring.

The book’s hero, Brodie Moncur, comes from a large motherless family living in a bleak manse. The children (now adult) are dominated by a bullying, drunken father, who nevertheless draws large crowds to hear his hellfire sermons. Brodie is the only one to get away, by working as a piano tuner in Edinburgh (he has perfect pitch.). He is sent to Paris to work in the office there and his adventures begin. After an unfair dismissal, he begins working for a virtuoso pianist known as ‘the Irish Liszt’. Unfortunately for him, he falls madly and permanently in love with a Russian woman who lives with the famous pianist and his menacing brother. The group travel Europe, spending much time in Russia until events there lead Brodie and his love Lika to wander Europe, always on the run, never feeling safe. Because of his poor health, Brodie ends up in the Andaman Islands, working for an anthropologist. No spoilers, but the ending is very sad. William Boyd has said that Brodie is ‘an innocent’ and sure enough, time and again I was thinking, ‘silly boy, can’t you see that …?’ Well written, like all Boyd’s books, I thought it was beautiful and enjoyed it.
I read this thanks to NetGalley.

It took me a little while to get into this book, for some reason - then it bit me and I was completely swept under. It has a passion and energy to it that steadily builds. I loved how unexpected it was, taking us all over Europe and further afield in ultimately, what is a quest for one man to be loved. At times maddening. at times completely touching, I fell in love with Brodie Moncur by the end who felt utterly human. A wonderful read.

I’m a big fan of William Boyd, so I wanted to love this book. But to be honest I found Love is Blind disappointing. It’s a fairly straightforward turn-of-the-twentieth-century romance, with a few twists. The principal character, Brodie Moncur, is a piano tuner, based initially in Edinbburgh. His employer moves him to Paris where he encounters z-list Russian opera singer Lika Blum. Unfortunately for Brodie, Lika is already involved with concert pianist John Kilbarron and his sinister brother Malachi. His involvement with Lika gets Brodie into no end of trouble. So far, so predictable. I felt the tale lacked Brodie’s usual spark and inventiveness, and the ending read rather as if he’d run out of time/ideas.
On the plus side, I learned more about the niceties of piano-tuning than I’m ever likely to need.
On the minus side, I grew weary of hearing the menu of every meal Brodie ate (because there was little about the food as sensual experience; it was a menu, pure and simple). I also reached screaming-point rather quickly as we were toldrepeatedly (and I mean repeatedly) about his favourite tobacco. Yes, it did turn out to be a clue to the denouement, but clues should be subtle and dropped in with care, almost imperceptiblly, not applied with a sledgehammer.
My main grouse is that Love is Blind reads as if it has not been past the eye of a competent editor. There were facts that jarred with me. For instance, as a Lowland Scot raised in the Presbyterian church, the idea of a garishly realistic crucifix and choirboys (!!!) in the kirk of a hellfire preacher like Brodie’s father sent my willing suspenion of disbelief dashing for cover. I also found much of the prose clunky. For example: “Mrs Dalmire slipped Cesar’s lead and he rushed to Brodie, jumping up so Brodie had to catch him, writhing in his arms as he desperately tried to lick Brodie’s face.” “The temperature was always around eighty degrees, most of the year.” I’m a writer myself. I’d be pretty angry with any editor who let clumsy sentences like these past. A well-known song of the period is cited as “I dreamt THAT I dwellt in marble halls.” Maybe I’m picky, but misquotes which stand out as misquotes jar with me.
It won’t put me off reading William Boyd’s work, but I hope Love is Blind is just a minor blip.

This is the tale of a piano tuner and the Russain woman he falls in love with. It is very moving, from the beginning in the harsh family home in Edinburgh via Paris, Russia, many other European cities to the tropics. The geographical locations are all described in such detail that the reader is aware that you are in a different city. The workings of a piano are likewise, intricately written about. And of course the characterisation is excellent. I loved this book and thoroughly recommend it.

A compelling tale aided by Boyd's excellent prose and descriptions of 19th century Europe. I particularly liked the attention to detail that Boyd had regarding the main character's profession which in the hands of an lesser author would have been mostly skipped over. The author has done a lot of research and it shows.

The only thing that didn't quite work for me was the love story, but it's neither here nor there as there was plenty of other things going on to counterbalance it.

Love is Blind will be a solid but unsurprising read to established fans of the author, and a good introduction to newcomers.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A classic William Boyd piece of literary fiction. Following the fortunes of Brodie Moncur, a piano tuner from Edinburgh at the turn of the 20th century. A sweeping, timeless classic which covers the universal themes, especially all-consuming love. Whilst covering the life of one man, the novel also examines the world as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Stunningly written, compassionate and totally involving. I loved this novel.

The comfort of an unsurprising read

I do always enjoy reading Boyd, an author who relishes words, knows how to craft a tale, creates complex and believable characters and often, in his books, explores cultural times and places, as he takes his central characters though their lifetimes. His central characters are frequently connected with the arts and culture generally. His historical period is often around the end of the nineteenth and earlier part of the twentieth century

Stunningly good versions of this include Any Human Heart and The New Confessions. Also central, generally, is some kind of obsessional love affair, often going wrong, and leaving unhealed wounds

With the title Love Is Blind the Boyd Reader knows we are in for pretty much the same journey.

Central character here is Brodie Moncur (Boyd generally manages wonderful names) .
Moncur, who has an uneasy relationship with his domineering, irascible clergyman father, is a gentler soul. He is blessed with perfect pitch. The art he is associated with, therefore, music. Moncur is not however a musical virtuoso himself. A good musician, but not enough so to achieve status sufficient to earn a living from performance. His skill is in his ear, and his craftsman hands. Almost by chance, he stumbles into his profession – piano tuning, and at a time, and in connection with, a piano making business out to rival the highest quality, most prestigious of instrument makers for those virtuosi.

Chance and opportunity send him to Paris. There he meets the Boyd femme fatale. Lika Blum, a beautiful (of course) , passionate (of course), soulful and creative woman of intelligence, complex emotions, and somewhat fluid morality (of course) is a young and vibrant Russian soprano. She also comes trailing clouds of glorious prior entanglements.

“It didn’t matter how well you thought you knew someone, he realised. You saw what you wanted to see or your saw what that other person wanted you to see. People were opaque, another person was a mystery”

I love the fact that these kinds of travelling-across-cultures-and-inching-through-history Boyd novels are always thoroughly immersive………….however…..(and it felt mean spirited to be thinking this) I did think he was deepening a groove of ‘this is the pattern of a Boyd novel. Even down to how his imaginary characters might tangentially brush past real characters, and we, as readers, surrender to a kind of game Boyd might be playing. So, what I missed was a kind of surprise or new realisation.

Hence like, very much indeed, and a reading experience willingly surrendered into, very comfortably. But I was not unsettled by it, and at the end of the day, probably do want a book to niggle at me, usefully, once finished

I received this as a digital copy, for review, via NetGalley

Piano tuner Brodie Moncur is able to earn a living anywhere, anywhere there are pianos, he can secure a living.

He first encounters Lika Blum, while tuning for the 'Irish Liszt', John Kikbarron, and thus begins a lifetime's love and passionate obsession.

Following a fatal bout of violence, Brodie's mission is to secure a life with Lika, yet run from those pursuing revenge and haunting him. Add in Brodie's own struggles against tuberculosis, and his globetrotting flight from his rival - Boyd has created another brilliant story. Engaging, intriguing and pacy, I highly recommend this read.

William Boyd’s new novel is a captivating tale of love, travel and music; it is also a literary game, with Boyd sprinkling references throughout the novel which readers may or may not recognise. It is part classic epistolary novel, part adventure, part meditation on music and art, and part fin de siècle philosophising. At its heart is the doomed love between Brodie Moncur, a piano tuner from Edinburgh, and Lika Blum, a second-rate Russian singer whom Moncur encounters when he is sent off to Paris by his employers. Thus begins the peripatetic wanderings of our protagonist, as he travels all over Europe – and beyond, by the end of the book. The book is full of well-drawn characters, from Moncur’s Presbyterian minister father Malky, to the ‘Irish Liszt’ pianist John Kilbarron and his sinister brother Malachi, and of course the enigmatic Lika Blum, with a complicated past and even more complicated relationship to the two Kilbarron brothers.

Along the way Boyd manages to cast a knowing nod to several Scottish writers and stories – from Robert Louis Stevenson, to the imagined (or real?) pursuit of Moncur by Malachi mirroring James Hogg’s ‘Justified Sinner’, to the charming tale of Greyfriars Bobby and his devotion to his dead master. But it is the Russian writer Anton Chekhov who looms largest over the book, with its lady with a dog, a brilliantly written duel scene, and the ending which mirrors exactly Chekhov’s widow’s description of her husband’s death from tuberculosis. Indeed, Chekhov himself seems to appear as a mysterious Russian doctor whom Moncur meets in a health spa in Nice, but his accent is so thick that Moncur doesn’t hear his name well, thinking it sounds like ‘Archibald’.

Ultimately, this is a story of lost love and of a literal and metaphorical journey to find meaning and sense. In all of Moncur’s travels across the globe he is also at the mercy of events. It is only with his last trip that he actually chooses where he goes, everything up until then has led him to be sent away or to be exiled. But ‘choose’ is not the right word, for even at the end he is encouraged to spin a globe and stick a pin to decide where he will go, and so he makes his last trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This is a novel about meanings, of half-hidden truths and things unseen or blurred (Moncur’s poor eyesight and his bifocal glasses are an apt and constant metaphor throughout the book). It is a novel about coming to understand your place in the wider scheme of things and, ultimately, of coming to accept your fate. And it is a novel about a love that may be blind, and lost, but which comforts and consoles.