Sight Reading: a novel

For fans of Lily King, Maggie Shipstead, and Elizabeth Strout, and for readers who loved Bel Canto and The Hours...

On a warm spring day after a long New England winter, Hazel and Remy spot each other for the first time in years. Under ordinary circumstances, this meeting might seem insignificant. But Remy, a gifted violinist, is married to the Scottish composer Nicholas Elko--once the love of Hazel' s life, now struggling with a masterwork he cannot realize. In the twenty years since Hazel' s world was tipped on its axis, these three artists have faced unexpected joys, mysterious afflictions and other puzzles of life, their fates irrevocably interlaced.

As their story unfolds across two decades, moving from Europe to America and from conservatory life to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, this moving novel explores how the desire to create something real and true--be it a work of art or one's own life--can lead to deeper personal revelations, including the secrets we keep, even from ourselves. Lyrical and evocative, Sight Reading asks questions about what makes a family, about the importance of art and beauty in daily life, and about the role of intuition in both the creative process and the evolution of the self.