A deeply moving new novel about life and art from one of America’s greatest writers.

Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she’s kept at bay for a lifetime.

Shifting between past and present, Livia’s decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the traumas of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.

With razor-sharp acuity and deep affection, Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver’s unforgettable new novel reflects on class barriers, the risks of ambition, and the timeless love affair between life and art.

Demon Copperhead was the first Kingsolver book I ever read, and I loved it so much that I went into this one wildly excited. It didn’t capture my heart quite the way that one did, but I still really enjoyed it.

Livia Cable was a smalltown girl with big dreams and a love for playing the piano. Years later, she’s married and makes a modest living in the farm country where she grew up, and she doesn’t think much about her old life or the dreams she once had. Then an old lover calls out of nowhere and asks to see her again. Back when he knew her, she went by Livia Bohusz and was a music conservatory student, cut off from her family and sure of just one thing: she could play the piano like almost no one else. That call drags up old feelings and opens wounds she’s spent decades trying to bury.

The book moves between her past and her present as she decides whether to meet up with this man again, or deny him and keep things s they’ve been for years. Along the way she has to face the loss and abandonment that shaped her childhood, a love that burned too hot, and the man who shattered her faith in love and changed the direction of her life.

The writing is gorgeous and eloquent, and I had no trouble sliding into the narrator’s head. The book is full of hope and heartache in equal measure. I loved watching Livia chase her dream. She’s a small-town girl who wants to play piano for a living, and her fish-out-of-water experience at college felt so relatable. Going back and forth between past and present gave me a complete picture of who she is, and I appreciated that the story never wandered into predictable territory.

There weren’t many big shocks along the way, but that didn’t matter. The story still resonated with me and touched me in a way that left me thinking about it long after I’d finished. If you love literary fiction with beautiful prose and a main character you can easily spend hours with, add this one to your TBR.

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