August Blue by Deborah Levy

A gifted pianist, Elsa arrives in Athens, where she sees a mysterious women buying toy horses at a souvenir stall. Who is this person and why does she keep following her around Europe? What is the significance of these horses? Perhaps the answers lie in her past. Adopted as a child by Arthur, a renowned music teacher, Elsa achieved fame on the international concert circuit , before a night of the jitters shattered her confidence, both professionally and personally.

This is an enigmatic story, a little like a European art house film and with a classical sound track to match. I found myself streaming some of the music to enhance the experience.There is a dreamlike lyricism to the prose, which is relaxing to read and carries one along in a similar way to a song whose meaning is obscure, yet whose rhythm stays in your head.

This was an odd book, thankfully quite short, playing with ideas of memory, family and being a child prodigy among others. At times I found the writing style quite irritating with snippets of information about famous composers thrown around and almost staccato sentences at times. I did find myself drawn into Anna's world and thoughts though and wanted to follow her journey.
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin UK for an advance copy of this book

An experimental novel that will delight any lover of classical music due to its many references and nods, but ultimately this felt like one big mystery that baffled more than it gripped me.

August Blue (also the name of a painting by Henry Scott Tuke which actually gave this novel its name), centres around a piano virtuoso in her mid-30s. The so called Elsa has given up on her career and is now a blue haired woman giving piano lessons in Europe. She's an orphan, but is trying to break free from the chains that being a child prodigy has put her in and when we meet her in Greece, she sees a doppelgänger buying a set of mechanical horses at a flee market. The novel then drifts off into a strange sort of chase and confrontation with one's self.

There are a multitude of themes, all covered seemingly off handedly. The whole novel has a dreamy quality to it, it feels both like a lot of rambling, but at the same time it's pretty dense, for if you just let your mind drift off for a second to long you'll find yourself lost in Elsa's mental wanderings (and yes, this has happened to me several times). Over the course of the story, Elsa explores her family background, with our ties to others an important subject in here.

The most important topic seemed to be identity, though. Elsa is looking for her place to belong, her way of figuring out the world in which she feels increasingly alienated. It's up to you whether you want to go on that journey with her. I quickly accepted that this novel is to be seen more as a puzzle than a presentation of a conventional story arc and that mindset did make it intriguing, I just didn't feel like I got that much out of it in the end.

One thing I did enjoy was the role classical music played. I don't think I have read a novel yet that was so dedicated to the genre, unblushingly name-dropping all sorts of musicians and specific pieces. I personally am versed in that world enough to be able to place those references, but I did find it amusing how little explaining she felt the need to do.

Overall, this just didn't leave a strong impression on me, but still made me want to explore Levy's work further, meaning that I'll probably be picking up Hot Milk at some point, because I now am curious about what other stories float around in her clearly quite educated and reflected kind of mind.

"We agreed that whatever happened next in the world, we would still rub conditioner in our hair after we washed it and comb it through to the ends, we would soften our lips with rose-, strawberry- and cherryscented balm, and though we would be interested to see a wolf perched in a lonely mountain, we liked our household animals to betray their savage nature and live with us in our reality, which was not theirs".

Another beautiful short novel by Deborah Levy. There is a beautiful portrait of her in the Guardian at the moment, by Charlotte Higgins, and it is a good summary of everything I loved about this novel and everything I love about Deborah Levy. 'August Blue' manages to be mysterious but warm, intriguing, smart but not pretentious. Is there a double meaning with a character called Elsa, with blue hair, a pianist who just had a breakdown on stage in Vienna, and is travelling across Europe, giving private tuitions to wealthy teenagers? Elsa keeps seeing a doppelgänger around, who may or may not even look like her but who buys the mechanical horses she covets while at the flea market in Greece. Soon she ends up seeing that double virtually everywhere, in London and in Paris, following her around while Elsa wears the hat discarded by the stranger.

I also enjoy how her characters occupy the space - all the small flats they live in, the comfortable Italian house, the lovely Paris flat she stays in when tutoring a bored teenager, with its lovely wooden floors. She has a real talent to make spaces seem both temporary and timeless, somehow permanent in its own way - that flat will survive its inhabitants. The writing is comforting and clever - beautiful.

I really loved it - as I do most Deborah Levy's.

Deborah Levy is a writer who has always challenged me. Her three slim autobiographical instalments are a sheer delight, they’re punchy and illuminating as she ruminates on segments of her life, providing a wry commentary on some of the challenges she’s faced and people she’s met. But I’ve sometimes found her fiction somewhat less satisfying, in the sense that I’ve always been impressed by the intelligent dialogue she invariably provides but have sometimes found her characters a little soulless. Perhaps that’s a little harsh, as in The Man Who Saw Everything she introduced me to a Jewish historian called Saul Adler who I found utterly fascinating, but it’s certainly true of the people who populated Hot Milk and Swimming Home. So what to make of this one?

Elsa M. Anderson was brought up by the famous piano teacher Arthur Goldstein. Her very early years are initially a bit of a mystery, but it’s clear that Arthur had recognised her prodigious talent and over the years was able to mould her into a world class performer. But one day she inexplicably deviates from the piece she is playing during a concert in Vienna and shortly after simply walks off the stage. Her story is picked up soon after this event.

At age thirty four she seems adrift, travelling around Europe, from London to Athens, Paris, and the islands of Poros and Sardinia. A mysterious woman seems to haunt Ella, appearing (or at least seeming to) in various places. Elsa calls think she’s her ‘double’ and becomes somewhat obsessed by her. The tale takes place during the pandemic and the wearing of masks adds an additional element of mystery to proceedings.

So the set-up is interesting, but what of the reading experience? Well, in truth I failed to identify with Elsa. Her world is very different to mine, infused with classical music as it is and with the overwhelming sense of being adrift after having now abandoned something she’d spent the majority of her life to date cultivating. Then there’s the mystery of the woman – her double – who she spots from time to time; try as I might, I just couldn’t comprehend where this fitted into the overall narrative. In consequence found it all a rather frustrating experience and discovered that I was increasingly reluctant to return to its pages.

I’m sure that other readers will have very different feelings to me about this one, in fact I’ve already read a few reviews to this effect. Would a second reading would unlock something, or is it just that I simply lack the imagination to knit everything together? I don’t know. I remain a fan of Levy’s gifts and I’ll continue to grab her books as soon as they become available; she offers something I don’t get from other writers and therefore even if this one failed to engage me I know I’ll be back for more.

Beautifully written and very compulsive, it’s short and strange and I didn’t totally understand it. But was I supposed to? Mysterious but well worth reading.

I very much enjoyed this short perfectly crafted novel .The author has a very distinctive clipped voice with short precise sentences and even shorter paragraphs which are frequently almost poetic in structure

The book is set at the current time in a Post pandemic era I lived the way that the public were described as benign“ everyone looked dazed and battered by the
Pandemic which the author caller called The confinement
I loved the concept of the novel which involves a woman who the narrator keeps nearly meeting in different cities and talks to when she is not present .The will they won’t they meet thought was in my mind throughout and at one stage I considered that the person was a figment of her imagination

Always hard to rate a book which you didn’t absolutely love but could appreciate it is so well crafted .This was one of those books .I’ve given it 5 stars although it wasn’t a book that I personally loved
I had read another of the authors books Hot milk which was listed for the booker prize a few years back and was delighted to see this book on NetGalley

I read a copy of the novel on NetGalley uk the book is published in the uk on 4th may 2023 by Penguin General uk .
This review will be published on Goodreads NetGalley uk and my book blog bionicsarahsbooks.Wordpress.Com

I really enjoyed this book starring blue haired pianist Anne exploring her relationships from that with her teacher to friendships and the doppelganger she meets in a market

I really enjoyed this book, slightly unusual in some of its contents.
Essentially the tale of an internationally renown concert pianist, some understanding of the music world may be beneficial to a deeper understanding of the work, although the essential parts are explained.
When something happens one day when she is supposed to be playing Rach 2 (supposed by many to be the hardest piece in the world to play), her life changes (probably) forever.
The author explains what happened right at the end of the book, see if you guess the twist in the tail, there are enough clues.
Deborah Levy is an excellent author, and this book does not disappoint.
Thanks for a brilliant book, and my thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy for honest review.

The writing is beautiful, but seemed muted, possibly due to lack of speech marks, which made it difficult to realise that someone was talking. A slow but enjoyable read.

A somewhat random book but which was hard to put down! Couldn't decide how I felt at the end. Always worth a try

I enjoyed this novel, whilst not my usual fast p[aced read it was nice to relax with this story of our famous pianist following her humiliation and her mentor whose worlds have been entwined since she was a little girl.

Elsa is a famous pianist who faces public humiliation after going a bit rogue during a concert in Vienna. She heads to Greece after and sees a woman she considers her double buying two horse figurines in a market. They seem to follow each other across Europe leading up to a dreamlike encounter.

Okay there is no getting around this being a pandemic novel so if that's not your thing then I'd give this a miss. Otherwise this is as beautiful and you would expect a Deborah Levy novel to be. I thought Elsa was such an interesting protagonist and it was a joy to follow her and peel back the layers of her character.

Will read Deborah Levy forever!

I could not wait to read this novel as I am a huge fan of Deborah Levy, and happily this did not disappoint. Levy is at the height of her powers in this story about a conflicted professional pianist, her adopted father/ teacher and her mysterious ‘double’ who may or may not be stalking her, or is it the other way around? Set across several European countries, there’s something wonderfully cinematic about it and I’d love to see it adapted for the screen.

A perfect summer read. Slow, thought provoking, gorgeous prose. Deborah Levy at her finest - I wouldn’t expect anything less. Fascinating, dreamlike and intriguing.

Deborah Levy here is in familiar territory but still manages to offer up new perspectives on life with this examination of a virtuoso pianist and her relationship to her mother and adopted father. A perfect, thoughtful summertime read.

Absolutely loved this. Dreamy unrooted narrator adopted into a home in art (music) with 'enough rooms in that home for the loneliness that engulfed [her] all the time, the rage that was always there.'
In breaking out of her appointed box, she risks undoing her achievements - but finds herself.

There are shades of the movie Tár in this insight into the obsessive world of high-flying classical musicians. Like the film, this novel focuses on a musician at the top of her game, but one whose world has begun to disintegrate. And, like the film, the storytelling is baffling, stylish, infuriating and ultimately addictive. Pianist, Elsa is a mesmerising protagonist and her story of doppelgänger-chasing across Europe taps into the unhinged otherness of living through the time of Covid. But Elsa holds back too much from the reader. I wanted to know so much more about her life but she wasn't prepared to share. This is perfectly 'in character' but it makes for an unsatisfying read. Nevertheless, whatever Deborah Levy writes is smart, funny and full of insights. August Blue is no exception.

A famous concert pianist, troubled by a lapse in her ability to perform, and haunted by uncertainty of her origins, spends a confusing summer of sliding doors, and the imminent exit of her mentor and protector from her life. She finds parallels and echos in experiences, and particularly a woman she sees everywhere, who she sees as her nemesis or her double. She has internal conversations with this woman and is aware of her presence wherever she goes. For most of the novel she is in a constant state of nervous movement, shifting from one place to another, creating tension to lead the reader on to the final page.

This new offering from Deborah Levy is frustrating and oblique - but also unputdownable. Written in short sentences, it is an exploration of memory and personal history of a renowned concert pianist who is forced to confront her past and parentage following a disastrous performance. There is a focus on doubling throughout the narrative, which is intriguing. The writing shimmers throughout, leading the reader on through a dreamlike world with an unreliable narrator.