Recommended by the Reviewers Club
Our protagonist, Elsa, is a renowned concert pianist who walks off stage and rejects her identity as a pianist who was groomed for stardom by her teacher, Arthur Goldstein who also adopted her as a child when she was abandoned by her birth mother.
Throughout Elsa’s travels through Europe, she is shadowed by a woman who looks like her, wears similar clothes, and is the same age as her. Is she a dream, a hallucination?
Elsa ruminates constantly about her birth mother – she both wants to know who she was, and yet doesn’t.
This book is both melancholic and dreamlike, reflecting the profound human desire for self-discovery. Quite disturbing and whimsical, but beautifully written.
4/5 Stars