A heartwarming story about the powers of music and friendship.
Sarah's hope of becoming a concert pianist was shattered when she bombed
an important performance of a Mozart concerto. Now in Munich, she feels
like an imposter in her job as a food magazine editor. A chance
encounter in a music shop leads to a surprising friendship with an
elderly widower with a unique grand piano. When they start meeting to
play Mozart's works for four hands, Sarah unravels the mysteries of his
war-time past, uproots a musical secret in her own family -- and finds
the strength to redirect her own future. Laced with melodies from Mozart
and Schumann to Toto and Nena, The Girl with Twenty Fingers will
delight readers, while asking the question: Can music change lives? Kate
Mueser's debut novel cracks open notions of failure and second chances,
living to the fullest and dying without regrets, and cultural identity
and privilege, making it both timeless and urgently relevant to our age.
"Musicians know guilt. (Too much sforzando! Not enough practice!) When
American pianist Sarah Johnson takes her Mozart guilt to Munich, the
better to struggle with her shame, her unfinished master's degree, and
her search for self, she finds an ancient city thriving on cell phone
texts, where World War II has left its excruciating scars. In these
complicated conditions, strangers become friends, Mozart brings distant
generations together, and piano duets underscore the doubts and hopes of
asymmetrical human history. And there's much coffee. A meaty question
for readers: Who in the story gives and who receives the greatest
gift?"--Virginia Euwer Wolff, National Book Award-winning author of The
Mozart Season
"An engrossing and dynamic multi-layered tale of love, loss, and the
intricacies that come along with each, The Girl with Twenty Fingers
follows a woman who finds her way back to music and herself through the
unlikeliest of friendships. Filled with wonderfully flawed characters
and lyrical prose, Mueser's debut is sure to delight the senses. A must
read for fans who love stories about secrets, family and second
chances." --Kerry Lonsdale, Wall Street Journal & Amazon Charts
Best-selling Author
Fiction. Music.
