The searing and haunting debut novel from PEN finalist and New York
Times bestselling author Andrea J. Buchanan
Spanning five generations of women, Five-Part Invention wrestles with
the question--if trauma echoes through generations, can love echo, too?
Is the love we transmit enough to undo the trauma of the past that we
unwittingly carry with us and often re-enact in the present?
When Lise, a pianist, suffers a nervous breakdown early in her marriage,
her husband, in a warped act of protection and jealousy, has her piano
taken away. With prose that is precise and emotionally affecting,
Buchanan vividly renders how Lise's separation from her one source of
expression and fulfilment cascades into her relationship with her
daughter, leaving a legacy of trauma that echoes through the generations
to come. Characters emerge broken and passionate, jagged, and yet
hopeful and emotionally resonant, written in a way that only Buchanan,
herself a conservatory-trained pianist, could achieve.
Five-Part Invention is by turns frightening and exquisitely observed,
and establishes Buchanan as a literary force.