Music, in a Foreign Language - Softcover

Crumey, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312169469 ISBN 13: 9780312169466

Publisher: Picador, 1997

Synopsis

Winner of Scotland's Saltire Prize for Best First Novel

Set in an imaginary police state in modern Britain, Andrew Crumey's debut novel explores the complex friendship between two men, Charles King and Robert Waters, a physicist and a historian who share a secret history of political and sexual dimensions. An underground magazine they had once co-published brings then under an investigation that pits one against the other. As the novel's narrator unfolds the tale, he reveals pieces of his own life. His autobiography is augmented by the story of the two friends like the melody and counterpoint of a fugue, until both movements inevitably join across time.

About this title

Review

You can't accuse Andrew Crumey of playing it safe with his first novel. It's sprawling, intricate, moody, crazed, philosophical, and oddly introspective. Despite a wealth of plot lines--among them the confused lineage of Duncan Waters, the love affairs of physicist Charles King, and a story of beautiful strangers on a train--the book also finds time to develop a discussion of Italian surrealist writer Alfredo Galli, who may or may not have created many of the plot lines attributed to the narrator. Ultimately, Music in a Foreign Language becomes a work of metafiction as it attempts to unravel the mystery of what exactly a novel is. A challenging and entertaining read.

About the Author

Andrew Crumey was born in Glasgow in 1961. He studied theoretical physics and mathematics at St. Andrews University and Imperial College, and did postdoctoral research at Leeds University in nonlinear dynamics. His second novel, Pfitz, is available from Picador. He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0312169469
• ISBN 13: 9780312169466
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256