AustLit

'Imagine if you forgot yourself, disappeared, and created a new self and life in a place where you are a stranger—how long would it be until the past caught up with you? The mysterious art dealer, the Countess Rivers, is in jail for the traumatic murder she cannot remember. As she paints and writs, readers are taken on her last art collecting trip, that did not go according to plan. From the art world in London to a community of mind-altering artists in Australian rainforest and cities, a lost object of desire returns with unforeseen consequences. Fugue techniques orchestrate the choir singing in this polyphonic psychological thriller told through the conflicting sexual-emotional perspectives of academic Sir Hugo Rivers, who is researching sexuality, and Ruby, his younger wife. What is the significance of the violinist and the music haunting her? ' (Publication summary)