Sight Reading: A Novel by Daphne Kalotay

(Thank you to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

The critically acclaimed author of Russian Winter turns her “sure and suspenseful artistry” (Boston Globe) to the lives of three colleagues and lovers in the world of classical music.

On a Boston street one warm spring day, Hazel and Remy spot each other for the first time in years. Although their brief meeting may seem insignificant, behind them lie two decades in which their life paths have crisscrossed, diverged, and ultimately interlaced. Remy, a gifted violinist, is married to the composer Nicholas Elko—once the love of Hazel’s life.

It has been twenty years since Remy, an ambitious conservatory student; Nicholas, a wunderkind launching an international career; and his wife, the beautiful and fragile Hazel, first came together, tipping their collective world on its axis. As their story unfolds from 1987 to 2007, from Europe to America, from conservatory life to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, each discovers the surprising ways in which the quest to create something real and true—be it a work of art or one’s own life—can lead to the most personal of revelations.

Lyrical and evocative, Sight Reading explores the role of art and beauty in everyday life, while unspooling a transporting story of marriage, family, and the secrets we keep, even from ourselves.

my thoughts:

Musical.  That is precisely how I would describe Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay.  A novel that explores the love, passion, and suffering involved in a musical career.  She has taken this world and made it come to life with her vivid descriptions and lyrical writing - I almost felt like I could hear and feel the music being played within the pages of the book. 

As for the characters, well there is Nicholas, a composer bent on creating THE composition of his life; Hazel, his unhappy wife; and Remy, the young woman he has an affair with.  Its rather sad reading about so much heartbreak and infidelity, but at the same time, I found it to be a rather honest depiction of relationships.  They don't always manage to work out and Kalotay has decided to focus on that reality.  We get the happy, with all the unhappy and I found that to be rather refreshing for some reason.

I truly enjoyed every minute I spent reading this fantastic novel.   Kalotay's writing is terrific!  She manages to get her reader immersed in the music world, caring about unlikeable characters, and leaving them wanting more.  I would most definitely recommend Sight Reading to anyone and everyone looking for a new book to read.

Here's the link to the schedule for this book tour: Sight Reading.

 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!