Music of a Life (French: La Musique d'une vie) is a 2001 novella by the French writer Andreï Makine. A tale of Soviet oppression, it tells the story of a talented Russian piano player who has to abandon his career right before his first concert, flees to the countryside and adopts the identity of a dead soldier.
 First English edition | |
| Author | Andreï Makine |
|---|---|
| Original title | La Musique d'une vie |
| Translator | Geoffrey Strachan |
| Language | French |
| Publisher | Éditions du Seuil (France) Arcade Books (UK) |
Publication date | 2001 |
| Publication place | France |
| Pages | 132 |
| ISBN | 9782020483438 |
Reception
editPublishers Weekly wrote: "It's a simple story, but Makine's lovely lyric writing—excellently translated—in which the scenes are imagined with a sharply cinematic focus, gives it considerable depth and emotion; the quiet ending, back in the present time, is wrenching."[1]
The book was awarded the Grand prix RTL-Lire.[2]
References
edit- ^ "Fiction Book Review: Music of a Life by Andrei Makine". Publishers Weekly. 2002-10-06. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
- ^ "Grand Prix RTL-Lire : les lauréats évoquent leurs souvenirs" (in French). RTL. 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2017-10-29.