The House of Silence
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In the tradition of Elena Ferrante—a breathtaking European novel of love, loss, and the mysterious connection between four people, a valuable violin, and their passion for music.
Moving between Barcelona and Berlin in the 1980s, this is a profoundly moving story of loneliness and connection, music and desire, from an award-winning Spanish novelist, translated into English for the first time.
A three-hundred-year-old Stainer violin lost and found connects a charismatic conductor who emigrated to Barcelona from behind the Iron Curtain, his two star violinists, and his Spanish maid. Love triangles, the pursuit of the precious violin, and the need for beautiful music shoot through The House of Silence.
The love of music the characters share is tempered by ambition, envy, and greed, which crescendo on the evening of a memorial concert in Berlin, when the presence of an elderly lady in the audience makes some members of the orchestra very nervous. Who is the rightful owner of this exquisite violin? And, as secrets come to light, how far will people go to seek revenge?
Praise for House of Silence:
“An exceptional work by Blanca Busquets, one of our country’s most prominent writers.” —La Casa de los Libros
“A signora of Catalan literature, a heiress of the great Mercè Rodoreda.” —Glamour Magazine Italia
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A quartet of voices narrates Busquets's first book translated into English (La Nevada Del Cucut) formulaic but often lovely novel of music and romance. Each narrator takes turns explaining their relationship to a 300-year-old rare violin and, through this, their relationship to the famed and secretive composer Karl T: Teresa, who found the violin as a child while dumpster-diving with her mother; Maria, Karl's longtime maid who accidentally threw away the violin; spoiled and spiteful Anna, who was Teresa's violin student and now will be performing alongside her; and Mark, Karl's son, a less accomplished composer. The four are drawn together at a performance done in honor of the now deceased Karl. The stories each narrator tells are deeply intertwined and contain soap opera twists and turns: a secret pregnancy, a not-so-accidental death, a revelatory letter, and a momentous concert where tricks are played and truths are revealed. While each character maintains an independent, intriguing emotional arc, the voices are often similar, in part due to an overuse of undescriptive dialogue. With a fast pace and plenty of plot twists, Busquet's ode to music is an entertaining performance surveying envy, love, and revenge with a handful of missed notes.
