What a brilliant book spanning two centuries it gave an insight into life in the late nineteenth century. From the Scottish Borders to France and Russia it was an epic tale that was difficult to put down. Probably one of the best novels I have read in a long time. Highly recommended.

There are few tales more satisfying to read than those where you find yourself firmly on the side of the protagonist. In every way, 'Love is Blind' is one of them.
Unhappy at home in Scotland and spurred on by his Godmother and benefactor Lady Darcastle, Brodie Moncur escapes to Paris. It is, however, not long before we realise that he; "may leave home, but home never leaves you."
Early on, our affable principal comments on his grasp of French as ; "comprehension virtually 10 per cent; with expression around 90." Yet despite this, and his admirable attempts and successes in acquiring Russian too, it transpires that his comprehension of those who surround him is actually quite limited. As he stumbles 'blindly' from one opportunity to the next, he struggles to identify the true intentions of his acquaintances and companions. Honest and open-hearted, he receives others in the manner in which he presents himself; "I'd believe you if you said the earth was flat and the moon was mad of cheese."
In fact, people lead him a merry dance as he travels from one concert hall to the next (from Brussels, Paris and Berlin, to Vienna, Milan, Rome and Geneva among others) always in someone's shadow and yet purportedly indispensable. This, combined with his need to convalesce in warmer climes, ensures the story develops in an engaging romp across Europe and still further. Brodie himself reflects: "It was astonishing how quickly life could change, how the ground moved beneath you and the landscape you were living in turned out to be entirely different."
Read it. You'll love it.

I found this an interesting read with an unusual, but certainly not mundane, occupation of piano tuner at its heart. I enjoyed following Brodie's travels and fortunes through Scotland, France, Russia and beyond, although I'm not sure how realistic his rise to the upper echelons of his profession would have been at the turn of the 20th Century, when this is set. I liked his fraught family relationships and his interactions with his employers, but the most enduring parts were those with his obsessive love, Lika. I found the novel well-written on the whole, as I would expect from William Boyd, although it could have been a little more tightly edited in parts to avoid repetition and the occasional rambling. However I was thoroughly absorbed throughout and was sorry to see it end so suddenly.

Love is Blind is an initially engaging novel, but i’m afraid i became increasingly frustrated with it as the narrative progressed. The varied settings are brought convincingly to life, although again this was stronger in the earlier sections than later. I’d suggest this was down to “love having blinded” and therefore less reliance on place, but there remained lots of description and evidence of research, it just didnt feel as real in thee later stages. There is a reliance on banal sex scenes - nothing entertaining enough to reach the heights of the bad sex awards, just not essential to progress the story.

I was convinced by Moncur’s (the central character) depth of obsession with the love of his life, but was just as frustrated at his inability to recognise certain key facts and statements - beyog “love blindness” and into “this is a convenient narrative place to realise this fact”. Overall, i was disappointed with Love is Blind and had expected more from Boyd.

Well, there are ways to write about physical love, lust and desire but this isn't it - for me, at any rate. Boyd's prose is no more than workmanlike in this book which manages to be both bogged down in detail (why do we need to know precisely which brand of cigarettes each character smokes? Oh yes, because Boyd researched them) and simultaneously skim the surface when it comes to the personal relationships supposedly at the heart of this book. I never felt, either, that these were people who had grown up in the Victorian period or late nineteenth century - the way they think, speak and act feels utterly contemporary.

The musical backdrop is done well but everything else felt overdramatic, almost operatic, but without the fantasy element that opera uses to, paradoxically, make us 'believe'.

To me this feels overly simple and simplistic in writing and imaginative vision. There are lots of female breasts (lots) and quite a lot of masturbation (not explicit) all of which render sex as a transaction rather than something more emotional, no matter how many times Brodie swears his undying (ha!) love to Lika: 'Brodie kept a running calculation: from September 1898 to May 1899 - no sexual congress with Lika... masturbation was only the briefest consolation.'

On the plus side, there's quite a lot of story here as the tale sweeps from Edinburgh to Paris to St Petersburg and then swoops off to the Andaman Islands. Personally, I found the whole thing rather thin and uninvolving - as an evocation of erotic love, I didn't believe this for a second. Sorry, not for me.

A historical romance, where travel through Paris, Russia and Scotland form the background to the theme of passion. Boyd is an accomplished writer who illuminate the life of a piano-tuner in thrall to a world-famous pianist and his mistress. Not entirely sure why his chose to tell this tale, but enjoyed reading it, would make a lovely film or television series.

A beautifully written book which I would expect from William Boyd. However it does meander quite a bit and a piano tuner’s occupation isn’t the most exciting.. interests no but sadly not his best.

"'You could say,’ Vere mused, ‘that, looking at it from one angle, you’re having an amazing Russian literary experience.’"

In the TLS's recent Booker 50th anniversary edition, various past winners were asked about underrated authors that should have featured more in the prize's reckoning. Thomas Keneally suggested: "William Boyd is a consistently pleasing and illuminating writer. He made it onto the Booker shortlist once with An Ice-Cream War, and – to be honest – should have won it."
(https://the-tls.co.uk/articles/public...)

This commendation drew me to Boyd's new novel, Love is Blind, but I would be very surprised if it caused this year's panel to tary long in their deliberations.

It's a straightforward (overly so) historical romance, set around the turn of the 19th Century around Europe, particularly in Scotland, Russia, Paris and the French coast (Nice, Biarritz).

In the late 1890s, Brodie Moncur is an expert piano tuner, working for a Edinburgh based piano manufacturer, and when the chance arises for him to move to Paris to try to reinvigorate their showroom there he grasps it with both hands. There he meets and forms a business venture with John Kilbarron–“The Irish Liszt” - a brilliant pianist but with fading powers, but their professional relationship is soured as Brodie falls in love with Kilbarron's muse, the soprano Lika Brum. As the novel progresses, Moncur travels across Europe, finding work wherever he goes, following Lika, and pursued in turn by Kilbarron's vengeful brother and business manager, Malachi.

"Not for the first time he gave thanks to the universal nature of his profession. Wherever there were pianos he could find work, one way or another."

Boyd's descriptive prose is his strong point, conjuring up the sights and sounds of the places and time:

"The dog cart clip-clopped through the village and led them past the church, St Mungo’s, still looking new – pure Gothic Revival with flying buttresses, finials wherever a finial could be placed and a tall bell tower with no steeple. Its rowan- and yew-dotted cemetery was crowded with ancient graves, former parishioners, the late, good folk of the Liethen Valley. Then they turned into the gravelled carriage drive of the manse, set in a wide dark garden filled with ornamental conifers – monkey puzzles, larches and cedars – and beech trees. Beeches grew well in the Liethen Valley soil."

And he - via Lika's observation - particularly effectively compares the Scottish highlands to the Russian steppe:

"I feel I could be travelling through a Russian village, so isolated, you know? The mood , the landscape. These small , low houses. The poverty. It’s different, of course, but somehow it makes me feel back home."

But Boyd is rather less successful conveying the historical background to the era, which is simply dropped in as lists of background events whenever Brodie picks up a newspaper:

"He read about the continuing animosities of the Dreyfus Affair, the celebrations being organized around Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the economic tribulations facing President McKinley , and a review of a shocking new novel called Dracula."

And the plot itself, while a reasonable page turner, was a little overwrought and contrived for my literary taste.

A couple of particular bugbears for me in the book - although in each case one hopes the author was aware even if the characters aren't.

First, at one key point, Brodie's tyrannical father, Malky Moncur, a famously impassioned, if rather hypocritical, preacher, bases a sermon on an Apocryphal text to indirectly condemn his son: but the verses quoted bear no resemblance to any version of Baruch 6 I have seen (did Malky simply invent them? or Boyd?)

"Regulars turned the pages of their Bibles looking for the verses that Malky had chosen as his text for his sermon. It was, Brodie saw, very obscure, even for Malky. From the Apocrypha, the Book of Baruch, chapter six , verses ten to twelve. He could see people vainly flicking through their Bibles, searching for it.
...
‘Now, whereof Nerias knew that his son Sedacius was caught in the snares of harlots and indeed had lusted after his brother’s wife, Ruth, and his brother’s daughter, Esther, and showed no remorse, yet Nerias suffered his son to live in his own house, yea, and fed him and his servants also. For Nerias, the Levite, was a righteous man. And the people saw the wisdom of the righteous man and Sedacius was spurned by the Levites, they spake not of him. There was a void, thereof. He was forgotten as a cloud melted by the force of the noonday sun, as smoke dispersed by a breeze. He was shadowless, a nothing, less than a mote of dust.’"

The second bothered me more. As Brodie and Lika travel around, the novel tells us "between them, they made a modest living, supplemented by their nights gambling with the martingale system in Biarritz’s casino."

Brodie describes his 'foolproof' system:

"I only played roulette – you know what a hopeless gambler I am. I played a simple martingale system: doubling my stake (2 fr) when I lost and pocketing my winnings when I won. You only bet on 2 to 1 odds. Red or black, odd or even. By the law of averages you will win at some stage. The only strange thing – if you double your stake each time you lose – is that sometimes you can be betting 40 francs to win 2 – so you need a substantial float."

Except of course this system is based on a mathematical fallacy. Even if the chances of winning were genuinely 2-to-1 (in practice, roulette is biased to the house) the expected winnings are zero. The last sentence highlights why - you don't just need a 'substantial float', you need an infinite one (and a casino prepared to extend you infinite credit lines). Sooner or later, the gambler will lose his entire float, the losses from which will balance out the modest winnings. I assumed that the flaw in the system would ultimately form a key plot point - but when it didn't it caused me to wonder if the author saw the flaw.

Overall, a pleasant but not particularly stimulating read. 3 stars less one for the dubious scriptural and mathematical references.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Brodie Moncur is a piano tuner when we first meet him, working for Channons in Edinburgh at the end of the 19th century and struggling in his relationship with his domineering father. When an opportunity arises for Brodie to work in Paris, he leaves Scotland and embarks on new challenges and a romance that takes him on further travels, to St Petersburg and various other places in turn of the century Europe.

Boyd's writing about place is captivating - I really loved the descriptions of St Petersburg and Paris in particular. The whole novel felt very immersive as the reader follows Brodie through his career and choices, the ups and downs feeling both realistic and natural. The novel is also well paced and kept my interest to the end, although I'll admit that I was disappointed with the ending - without giving any spoilers, I just thought it would be more interesting given what had gone before.

Overall, this is a novel that sweeps through turn of the century Europe with an engaging protagonist and lots to keep the reader interested. It's beautifully written and well researched throughout, although my impressions of the book were coloured by my reaction to the final scenes.

This new novel by William Boyd doesn’t disappoint. He is so good at transporting the reader to different places and eras, with evocative writing that summons the sights, smells and the feel of a place. This time the era is the end of the 19th century and the place Scotland and then mainland Europe.

Brodie Moncur is a piano tuner who moves from Edinburgh to Paris and falls in love with a Russian singer, Lyka. They are forced to flee as they are pursued by the brother of the man Lydia has betrayed. The relationship between Brodie and his bullying father is explored alongside the passion of Brodie and Lyka.

It is a long novel, but I never found it less than fascinating. Its sublety echoes the subtlety of the work of the piano tuner, making small small changes to achieve perfection. Definitely recommended.

Lovely read, draws you in to really care about the characters, just the right amount of intrigue to be interesting and realistic!

Love is Blind by William Boyd is a truly memorable story with wonderful characterization. His colourful writing instantly transports the reader to Scotland at the end of the nineteenth century and continues the journey through mainland Europe at a time of great change and gathering turmoil in the years immediately preceding the 1st World War.

Brodie Moncur is a piano tuner in the employ of Channons of Edinburgh and when the opportunity is offered to manage the Paris store he readily agrees. Brodie is an ambitious and proactive manager and believes that the best way to expand and promote the "Channon" brand is to employ the services of piano virtuoso John Kilbarron thus advancing the Company's pianos throughout Europe. This association leads to a fateful meeting between Brodie and the beautiful alluring Russian singer Lydia Blum, Kilbarrons on off girlfriend. A passionate clandestine affair develops that results in Brodie and Lydia fleeing from city to city hotly pursued by Malachi Kilbarron seeking revenge for his wronged brother.

I often think that the mark of a good story is the author's ability to take me the reader with him on a journey of discovery, to remove from the mundanity of modern living and surround me with the smells, sounds and excitement of the animated world he is describing. We therefore enter the preserve of piano virtuoso's at a time in history when piano use and production was at its highest and live performances although the privilege of the wealthy still attracted a mass following. Welcome to a place where the combustion engine has made an entrance, where consumption has destroyed the lives of young and old, and when true gentlemen resolved their differences by resorting to a dueling contest.

An exciting story brilliantly executed by one of England's greatest living authors..Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review, and that is what I have written. Highly Recommended

William Boyd's latest novel Love is Blind is aptly named. It shows us what people will do for love, the secrets they keep and what they choose not to see. Like Any Human Heart, this epic takes us around the world as it emerges into the twentieth century. Horse-drawn carriages make way for motor cars, but love affairs are as complicated as ever.
Brodie Moncur is a gifted piano tuner and a romantic. He longs to leave his dour upbringing behind for a life of possibilities in Paris. Brodie goes to work for a piano manufacturer in Paris. His bright ideas bring success for the company but jealousy from his corrupt manager. A chance meeting with an opera singer will change his life forever, and not necessarily for the better. Hand in hand with love are terrible betrayals both artistic and romantic.
Love is Blind succeeds not just as a great story but as a social history. Hausmann is building the Paris we recognise today. Social unrest is unfolding across Europe. Old empires are fading away. As the world becomes more known, the old ways must be catalogued before they disappear.
Brodie's love causes him to travel the world, never settling for long. Through his eyes we see beautiful sights, and experience depths of emotion. Boyd's superior storytelling keeps us gripped until the end.