This is the story of a family. Delia Daley, an outstanding singer from an African-American family, David Strom, a Jewish physicist who fled the Nazis and their three children, Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth. It is also a story about music, science, and race. From the 1930s through the 1970s, the parents hope that the notion of race will disappear, whilst the children face the challenges of growing up mixed-race, all staying united by the power of music. This novel is a multilayered story with historical events, scientific theories, and sharp musical knowledge that is emotionally profound and beautiful, so rich it is impossible to summarise properly. I would have preferred not to finish this book, but to immerse myself in its pages for a while longer.
“Written music is like nothing in the world—an index of time. The idea is so bizarre, it’s almost miraculous: fixed instructions on how to recreate the simultaneous. How to be a flow, both motion and instant, both stream and cross section.”