Canone Inverso: A Novel - Hardcover

Maurensig, Paolo; McPhee, Jenny

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080505538X ISBN 13: 9780805055382

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1998

Synopsis

A beautiful, oddly carved violin becomes the link between two generations of musicians, as they move from Hungary during the devastation of World War I, to Vienna and the approaching Anschluss, to a modern-day auction at Christie's in London

About this title

Review:

In present day London, a rare, 17th-century violin is offered at auction. Two bidders in particular covet it, one of whom claims to know its "terrible story." So begins Canone Inverso, Paolo Maurensig's elliptical tale of two young men whose passion for music, and this fiddle in particular, converges in a crescendo of obsession, envy, and betrayal. Friends who meet at music school in prewar Austria, Jeno and Kuno come from very different worlds: one the illegitimate son of a sausage maker, and the other the heir to a baronetcy. But together they share an obsessive devotion to music. Alas, what begins as a dance of soul mates--"We were like brothers, not in flesh or blood, but in that part of the spirit where order, rhythm, and harmony are found"--ends badly, the brutal disintegration of their relationship eerily paralleling Germany's decent into Nazi madness. Maurensig offers up a mesmerizing allegory (good against evil, brother against brother), peeling away layer after layer, only to reveal yet another bizarre reality: "Behind the refined music we hear, performed with levity and perfection by and orchestra or a string quartet, there is the straining of nerves, the gushing of blood, the breaking of hearts." --Marianne Painter

About the Author:

Paolo Maurensig published his first novel after the age of fifty. The Luneburg Variation, an internationally acclaimed best-seller, will be published by Owl Books in November (see Owl catalog, page 33). He lives in Udine, Italy. Jenny McPhee is a translator, writer, and editor living in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 080505538X
• ISBN 13: 9780805055382
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 202