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The Song Collector

On sale

24th March 2016

Price: £9.99

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781444736410

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By the author of Mr Rosenblum’s List, this is a captivating tale of passion and music, ancient songs and nostalgia, of the ties that bind and the ones we are prepared to sever.

‘A delightful, moving, utterly believable family saga’ The Times

Fox, as the celebrated composer Harry Fox-Talbot is known, wants to be left in peace. His beloved wife has died, he’s unable to write a note of music, and no, he does not want to take up some blasted hobby.

Then one day he discovers that his troublesome four-year-old grandson is a piano prodigy. The music returns and Fox is compelled to re-engage with life – and, ultimately, to confront an old family rift.

Decades earlier, Fox and his brothers return to Hartgrove Hall after the war, determined to save their once grand home from ruin. But on the last night of 1946, the arrival of beautiful wartime singer Edie Rose tangles the threads of love and duty, which leads to a shattering betrayal.

With poignancy, lyricism and humour, Natasha Solomons tells a captivating tale of passion and music, of roots, ancient songs and nostalgia for the old ways, of the ties that bind us to family and home and the ones we are prepared to sever. Here is the story of a man who discovers joy and creative renewal in the aftermath of grief and learns that it is never too late to seek forgiveness.

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Reviews

Kate Saunders, The Times
A delightful, moving, utterly believable family saga
Katherine McMahon, Sunday Express
A tender, lyrical novel of family and fame
Book of the Month, Choice
Moving and engaging, it's a captivating story that stays with you.
Lyndsy Spence, Lady
Natasha Solomons brings her characters to life with sympathy and understanding for their flaws and shortcomings . . . a profound story of love, loss and reconciliation
Amy Pirt, We Love This Book
Solomons could make a bin sound beautiful; her writing is divine, and I was pleased to see a return to the style of her earlier work, The Novel in the Viola. There is an innocence about her novels which is simply lovely and a welcome foil to the outside world. Her turns of phrases are startlingly unique, comparing magnolia flowers to "fat, tarty girls in ball gowns" and memories to "dandelion clocks in the wind".