Alma Mahler presents the imagined memories of a talented, passionate
woman living in the shadow of a famous husband. The novel deals with
Alma's marriage to the distant and introverted Gustav Mahler, the
Austrian late-Romantic composer and conductor, and with the many
intellectual and emotional sacrifices Alma makes in order to be a
support for him. Throughout, Alma wrestles with the tension between her
desire to be near genius and her growing awareness that all she will
ever receive in return for her sacrifice are the great man's silence and
the pains of solitude.