A compact masterpiece dedicated to the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich:
Julian Barnes's first novel since his best-selling, Man Booker Prize–winning The
Sense of an Ending.
In 1936, Shostakovich, just thirty, fears for his livelihood and his life.
Stalin, hitherto a distant figure, has taken a sudden interest in his work and
denounced his latest opera. Now, certain he will be exiled to Siberia (or, more
likely, executed on the spot), Shostakovich reflects on his predicament, his
personal history, his parents, various women and wives, his children—and all who
are still alive themselves hang in the balance of his fate. And though a stroke
of luck prevents him from