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In
this powerful confessional novel the creator of Lestat and
Azriel conjures up another ghost from the pantheon of the
undead: the mesmeric and dangerous Stefan — part incubus,
part inspiration. The nineteenth-century violinist appears
on the street corner in twentieth-century New Orleans, to
haunt Triana as she grieves for the death of the husband.
Like Anne Rice herself, she is in her fifties, her alcoholic
mother died when she was fourteen, and her own daughter has
died tragically of leukemia.
Stefan
takes Triana back to Vienna in the early 1800s, where Beethoven
was his teacher. In possession of Stefan's precious Stradivarius,
Triana herself becomes an international virtuoso and superstar
— but always haunted by the fear that her gift may be
illusory.
Like
a glorious orchestral symphony, different themes and melodies,
moods and movements, surge and combine. The painful, shocking
memories of a mother's death and a daughter's fatal illness;
the passionate, uneasy relationships between four sisters;
the surreal edgy life of a wealthy superstar — all these
vibrate in counterpoint to a savage, glittering tale of violence
and music in nineteenth-century Vienna. In the shifting power
struggle between Triana and Stefan, we see the artist in thrall
to the muse and the muse at the mercy of the artist, as the
narrative swells to a searing climax in modern-day Rio de
Janeiro.
Inspired
by the passion and the genius of Beethoven, Anne Rice exorcises
in this triumphant novel the ghosts of a modern heroine, and
plays out the tragedies and ambiguities of an extraordinary
life.
Source:
Violin jacket cover
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