Ghost Variations
The Strangest Detective Story In The History Of Music
by Jessica Duchen
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Pub Date 20 Sep 2016 | Archive Date 30 Sep 2018
Unbound | Unbound Digital
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Description
A world spiralling towards war. A composer descending into madness. And a devoted woman struggling to keep her faith in art and love against all the odds.
1933. Dabbling in the fashionable “Glass Game” – a Ouija board – the famous Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi, one-time muse to composers such as Bartók, Ravel and Elgar, encounters a startling dilemma. A message arrives ostensibly from the spirit of the composer Robert Schumann, begging her to find and perform his long-suppressed violin concerto.
She tries to ignore it, wanting to concentrate instead on charity concerts. But against the background of the 1930s depression in London and the rise of the Nazis in Germany, a struggle ensues as the “spirit messengers” do not want her to forget.
The concerto turns out to be real, embargoed by Schumann’s family for fear that it betrayed his mental disintegration: it was his last full-scale work, written just before he suffered a nervous breakdown after which he spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. It shares a theme with his Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations) for piano, a melody he believed had been dictated to him by the spirits of composers beyond the grave.
As rumours of its existence spread from London to Berlin, where the manuscript is held, Jelly embarks on an increasingly complex quest to find the concerto. When the Third Reich’s administration decides to unearth the work for reasons of its own, a race to perform it begins.
Though aided and abetted by a team of larger-than-life personalities – including her sister Adila Fachiri, the pianist Myra Hess, and a young music publisher who falls in love with her – Jelly finds herself confronting forces that threaten her own state of mind. Saving the concerto comes to mean saving herself.
In the ensuing psychodrama, the heroine, the concerto and the pre-war world stand on the brink, reaching together for one more chance of glory.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781783529827 |
| PRICE | £9.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Librarian 250745
This is a beautifully written historical novel, a mystery thriller and a character piece on art and how the events of a time can disenfranchise you from your home. Jelly was a very sympathetic character and the unfurling mystery was spell binding. This was unlike any other historical mystery I have ever read and I was enthralled to find out how closely it follows real historical events. Utterly beautiful.
Deanna S, Reviewer
I think we all know that if there’s the word ghost in the title I will probably want to read it and this one was no exception. I loved the sound of this book, historical fiction and ghosts, also music and a single female lead character? Yes please. Luckily this book was exactly what I was looking for and I really enjoyed it.
The book takes place in London in the early 1930’s and features out main character Jelly searching for a lost violin concerto that was brought to her attention by the spirit of the composer himself. The book is based on a true story and after reading it I’m really curious to see if there’s any non fiction books on the subject because it was really interesting to read about.
I loved the characters in here, we don’t go too in depth with a lot of them, but overall you get more than enough information to see where they stand and I think who they are as people. I especially loved Jelly, she was such a strong main character and it’s always so nice to read about a woman in a historical setting that chooses not to marry. I loved knowing that she had a successful career doing what she loved and that she found that to be more important than settling down. I also loved all the side characters, they all added something to the story, whether it was help, a different perspective or they were one of the bad guys, they all seemed to have a place in the story and it was well done.
The setting and time period were also really well done in my opinion! I love historical fiction and if you can make me picture the time period you’re talking about without boring me then we’re solid and this one did a really good job. Flipping from London to the countryside to Germany on the verge of WWII made the story what it was, and made the search and fight for the concerto so much more real and important somehow.
Overall this was a really enjoyable book, I loved the characters and the atmosphere and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone that likes historical fiction and who wants a quick read. In general it’s not a very heavy book, but we’re still very aware that it’s taking place in the world right before WWII breaks out, and knowing how history unfolds does make some information hit very hard, but overall it’s an interesting mystery based on a real life event and real life people.
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