Distant Music
Published on 7. March 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-09-943346-0 (ISBN)
Description
A richly imaginative novel of love, loss, time and the rise and fall of a great maritime empire, that sends two thwarted lovers spiralling through the chaos of history.
The story begins in 1429 on Madeira, when a peasant girl meets a boy- a Jewish outsider- from a Portuguese sailing ship. Esperanca and Emmanuel know they must part when the ship sails. From that first meeting and parting, others follow...
Emmanuel is in turn sailor, mapmaker, bookseller, jazz musician; Esperanca an illiterate peasant, a rich girl in Faro and a clever, bookish recluse who confronts a murderer in nineteenth-century Lisbon. In twentieth-century London, Esperanca is faced with a double incarnation, one of the true Emmanuel and the other a shadow. Over the centuries the couple face peril and tenderness. Each life is short. What survives is love.
The story begins in 1429 on Madeira, when a peasant girl meets a boy- a Jewish outsider- from a Portuguese sailing ship. Esperanca and Emmanuel know they must part when the ship sails. From that first meeting and parting, others follow...
Emmanuel is in turn sailor, mapmaker, bookseller, jazz musician; Esperanca an illiterate peasant, a rich girl in Faro and a clever, bookish recluse who confronts a murderer in nineteenth-century Lisbon. In twentieth-century London, Esperanca is faced with a double incarnation, one of the true Emmanuel and the other a shadow. Over the centuries the couple face peril and tenderness. Each life is short. What survives is love.
Reviews / Votes
A rich, evocative novel...Haunting and magical * Daily Mail * Lee Langley has a marvellous ability to evoke places...With originality and elegance she carried me enthralled into disparate, related and brilliantly illuminated worlds. Distant Music is a little masterpiece * Sunday Telegraph * One can almost feel the scent of orange blossom, the brilliance of the sun reflected on the sea, the ripe grape on the vine, the intoxicating atmosphere of romance and passion * Independent * Thoughtful and inventive...Elegantly written and quietly affecting * Sunday Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
260 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-943346-0 (9780099433460)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Lee Langley is the author of nine highly praised novels including Changes of Address (shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize) and Persistent Rumours (winner of a Commonwealth Writers' prize). Her most recent book was A Conversation on the Quai Voltaire, a volume of short stories, poetry and journalism. Her adaptation 'The Tenth Man', based on a Graham Greene story, was made into an award-winning movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Derek Jacobi. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in London.