Emma recommends... Partita - Barbara Kingsolver

Emma says... Partita is the story of one woman at two stages in her life, both of which are defined by love and music but in very different ways. From a youth marked by consuming passion and terrible tragedy to a midlife defined (positively) by contentment and compromise, Livia's life is a testament to the incredible gift, joy, and necessity that is art and what it means to practice and participate in your chosen form - wherever, however, and whoever you are. A quiet but deep and rich novel, with the stylish prose and social conscience we've come to expect from Kingsolver. Another winner.

---

A song without any answer in it? That's the sound of waiting.

Livia Bohusz misses her brother, Cyrus. Unmoored by his death, and the stifling silence of the family farm, eleven-year-old Livia has no choice but to survive. Her only solace: music, an escape in the quiet rapture piano practice brings. The promise of a new life her talent offers, intoxicating. So when Livia starts her college music scholarship it feels as if a new life might begin.

Immersing herself in her passions in a world where she excels, even as she struggles to fit in with more urbane classmates, she glimpses the possibilities of a life beyond the farm and her parents. Then one springtime, as the smell of reviving grass and crocuses and the sounds of songbirds fill the air, Livia catches a glimpse of shirt sleeves rolled to the elbow, muscles you wouldn't miss in the rear view: 'Who is that man?' It is a question Livia may come to wish she had never asked.

From one of the greatest writers alive comes Livia's story, Partita, both a coming-of-age narrative and an examination of midlife hopes and regrets, a novel as simple as love and longing, as touching, complex and finely tuned as the music it celebrates.