The Prague Sonata

by Bradford Morrow

Overview

“Twining music history with the political tumults of the 20th century, The Prague Sonata is a sophisticated, engrossing intellectual mystery.”—The Wall Street Journal  


Music and war, war and music—these are the twin motifs around which Bradford Morrow, recipient of the Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, has composed his magnum opus, a novel more than a dozen years in the making.

In the early days of the new millennium, pages of a worn and weathered original sonata manuscript—the gift of a Czech immigrant living out her final days in Queens—come into the hands of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. To Meta’s eye, it appears to be an authentic eighteenth-century work; to her discerning ear, the music rendered there is commanding, hauntingly beautiful, clearly the undiscovered composition of a master. But there is no indication of who the composer might be. The gift comes with the request that Meta attempt to find the manuscript’s true owner—a Prague friend the old woman has not heard from since they were forced apart by the Second World War—and to make the three-part sonata whole again. Leaving New York behind for the land of Dvorák and Kafka, Meta sets out on an unforgettable search to locate the remaining movements of the sonata and uncover a story that has influenced the course of many lives, even as it becomes clear that she isn’t the only one after the music’s secrets.

Magisterially evoking decades of Prague’s tragic and triumphant history, from the First World War through the soaring days of the Velvet Revolution, and moving from postwar London to the heartland of immigrant America, The Prague Sonata is both epic and intimate, evoking the ways in which individual notes of love and sacrifice become part of the celebratory symphony of life.

“An astonishing writer.”—Joyce Carol Oates


“A treasure of a novel, a deliciously enveloping musical mystery.”—Diane Ackerman

“An enthralling epic quest of a novel…Regular doses of surprise and suspense keep us immersed and involved…Compulsively enjoyable.”?Minneapolis StarTribune

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802189233
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/26/2020
Series:	Books That Changed the World
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	2,650
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Bradford Morrow is the author of eight novels, including Trinity Fields, The Diviner's Tale, and most recently, The Forgers, as well as a short story collection, The Uninnocent. He is the founding editor of Conjunctions and has contributed to many anthologies and journals. A Bard Center Fellow and professor of literature at Bard College, he lives in New York City.

Bradford Morrow (b. 1951) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, editor, and author of children’s books. He grew up in Colorado and traveled extensively before settling in New York and launching the renowned literary journal Conjunctions. His novel The Almanac Branch was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and for Trinity Fields, Morrow was the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Academy Award in Literature. He has garnered numerous other accolades for his fiction, including O. Henry and Pushcart prizes, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship. Morrow is a professor of literature and Bard Center Fellow at Bard College.

Read an Excerpt

With reverent delicacy, she turned the pages one by one, eyes traveling across the busy staves that filled each leaf. This wasn't going to be easy to play. Unaware she was doing so, she hummed an occasional phrase, tapped her toe gently on the floor. Meta might have sat down with the manuscript at her piano and performed it then and there. But she didn't want to listen to it until she'd had time to study the piece, learn what its composer was saying.

This was not your everyday second movement of a sonata, despite Irena's recollecting that's what it probably was. Brazen in its initial runs, the music settled now and again, only to move away into knotty clusters of sixteenth notes, like an impish acrobat who pretends to teeter off his tightrope high above the crowd, flails his arms as if he's about to fall, until, nimbly, in slow motion, he moves on.

Then, a plunge off a cliff—everything shifted to blacker registers. Gone was the acrobat. Gone were the playful, bucolic pace and tone of the earlier passage, which was, it now occurred to Meta, a feint, a dramatic setup. The meat, the soul of the dolorous passage had such a rich, slow sadness to it that, surprised, she turned back to the opening and reread the movement up to this radical shift in mood.

With its moments of staggering power and slyness, the music seemed as fresh that day, to this young woman in her barbell flat, as it must have sounded when it was conceived. Who was the conceiver, though? And where were the fore and aft of this noteworthy craft?

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Prague Sonata:

An Indie Next pick for October

A Buzz Books pick for fall/winter

A Book Passage Elaine’s Pick

“Twining music history with the political tumults of the 20th century, The Prague Sonata is a sophisticated, engrossing intellectual mystery . . . At the heart of the adventure story is a sensitive exploration of music’s strange power to encode memories into its themes and progressions . . . [Morrow’s] captivating, hopeful book presents a vision of the broken past, restored.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“An enthralling epic quest of a novel . . . The Prague Sonata is without doubt Bradford Morrow’s magnum opus . . . History is thrillingly re-enacted or re-created. Musical passages are conveyed with lyrical grace. Regular doses of surprise and suspense keep us immersed and involved . . . Compulsively enjoyable.”—Malcolm Forbes, Minneapolis StarTribune

“Morrow stages an academic mystery with real historical sweep . . . [The Prague Sonata] is plotted and scored like a golden-age film, and its triumphant ending will rouse you to applause.”—Weekly Standard

“A highlight of the year for me . . . [A] wonderful, vast novel.”—Bill Goldstein, “Bill’s Books,” NBC

“Bradford Morrow is an astonishing writer. His short fictions are brilliantly macabre, and his longer fictions are epic adventures in which obsessive particularities—in this case the provenance of a piano sonata presumed to be of the late 18th century—transform entire lives in the most unexpected and remarkable ways. Having explored the netherworld of ingenious fakery in The Forgers, Morrow now explores an even more intricately rendered world of rivalrous musicologists in his most ambitious novel to date, The Prague Sonata.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“The Prague Sonata is music scored for the reader’s imagination, expertly arranged—at once suspenseful and meditative, classical and surprising, devastating and genuinely inspiring. What a gorgeous novel this is. I thought often of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves—the fragmentation and ephemeral unity, its power to absorb us fully into a moving music. Bradford Morrow’s writing is as haunting and as beautiful as the fabled sonata it describes.”—Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!

“The Prague Sonata is a treasure of a novel, a deliciously enveloping musical mystery which I read with marvel and gusto. I love the duet of Pragues: first the puzzle and intrigue as characters search for a musical bridge between a composer’s early and later works through a city of bridges; how Meta does indeed become a part of the manuscript’s history; the many exquisitely-tuned, lyrical chapter endings; the counterpoint of plots in which people ‘chase ideas across curious landscapes’ from one continent to another; the melodic lines of characters and how tempting it is to liken the book’s structure to sonata form; and not least the sweethearts. I’m absolutely bowled over by Morrow’s ability to use dialogue, which seems to steer the novel so effortlessly. A virtuoso performance!”—Diane Ackerman, author of The Zookeeper’s Wife

“The Prague Sonata is a mighty, epic novel that only Bradford Morrow could have written. Moving from New York to Prague to London and beyond, it is a major and compelling work about the persistence of a smart, determined woman with a real commitment both to music and to truth. Rich in historical detail, beautifully sharp when it comes to music and manuscripts, The Prague Sonata challenges us to consider what it means to save culture in the face of forces that want to achieve power at its expense. Morrow has given us a masterful novel that’s necessary for our times.”—Brian Evenson, author of The Open Curtain

“This rich, masterful novel brilliantly explores the complex tumble of history, the human capacity for good and for evil, the fragile but redeeming glory of art. Morrow has long been one of America’s finest novelists. And this humanely epic tale is his finest book.”—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Perfume River

“Bradford Morrow has written his masterpiece. The Prague Sonata is a rich, joyous, complex journey into the city of Prague, the claims made upon us by music, and several dark, dark corners of human experience. In the right hands, as here, the novel can throw open its windows, rear up on its back legs, and tear off down the street, singing at the top of its lungs.”—Peter Straub, author of Interior Darkness: Selected Stories

“Music and war come to a crescendo in Bradford Morrow’s The Prague Sonata.”—Vanity Fair, “Hot type”

“[A] textured, style-rich historical novel . . . enjoyable for anyone who loves a symphony of words.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Music infuses Morrow’s descriptions of war, revolution, peace, love, friendship, and betrayal. Finely crafted storytelling . . . The reading pleasure comes from both Meta’s pursuit and the prose, which brims with musical, historical, and cultural detail.”—Publishers Weekly

“A musical mystery set against the backdrop of a nation shattered by war and loss . . . sonically rich . . . an elegant foray into music and memory.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The Prague Sonata is a sweeping narrative, through 200 years and across two continents, that examines the relationship of music to people and their cultural landscapes.”—Lincoln Journal-Star

“A beautifully written literary work . . . A love poem to music and the city and peoples of Prague . . . The narrative’s beauty carries the reader to the final note.”—Mystery Scene

“Crisscrossing the globe and a hundred years of history . . . [The Prague Sonata] delivers historical and artistic scholarship in a potboiler format that resists the car chases while still delivering an academic whodunit—or, in this case, ‘Where is it?’ . . . for fans of historical romances, Morrow’s intricate novel will . . . hit all the right notes.”—Chronogram

“The Prague Sonata is more than a superb multiperiod novel; it reads like a concerto by one of the masters. . . . Highly recommended.”—Historical Novel Society

“A sweeping, rich novel that moves through history from World War I, through World War II, into the fall of the Soviet Union and up to the present day, as it affects Czechoslovakia. Weaving throughout the story, with its rich and complex characters, is a hauntingly beautiful anonymous piano sonata that has been broken up into three parts. With writing that is multilayered and moves seamlessly throughout, it touches deep into the human heart.”—Richard Corbett, Powell’s Books, Portland, OR

“Bradford Morrow's enormous talent brings both Czechoslovakia of the early twentieth century roaring to life, as well as perfectly capturing our present-day protagonist, gracefully unwinding the secrets of the past. With each beautifully intimate moment The Prague Sonata will capture your heart, all the while the fascinating mystery at its center alights your imagination.”—Luisa Smith, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA

“Beautiful and compassionate and profound. A truly marvelous story.”—James S. Jaffe, James S. Jaffe Rare Books, New York, NY

“As entrancing as the musical piece in question, The Prague Sonata weaves through decades of mystery. A young musicologist whose performing career was cut short must tread through Prague as carefully as her fingers once caressed piano keys, as she seeks to reunite three long-missing manuscripts of sublime music. An added bonus: Morrow takes us into the neighborhoods and squares of one of the most beguiling cities on Earth.”—Rosemary Pugliese, Spellbound Bookshop, Asheville, NC

“This is a book for those who like their fiction long and immersive—most especially those with a love of music . . . Prague's history, the history of a composer who will remain unnamed to preserve the plot’s tension, a cast of characters that spans decades and oceans, and more than one love story make this a read that is fascinating in terms of its scholarship, musical in terms of its themes and its writing, breathtakingly paced yet epic in scope, simultaneously intimate and grand.”—Betsy Burton, King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT

“A book to immerse yourself in and enjoy.”—Jan Hall, Partners Village Store, Westport, MA

“A magnificent obsession sparks Morrow’s gorgeous novel . . . A plot as intricate as a sonata winds together the German occupation of Prague in 1939; an authentic eighteenth-century musical score hidden from the Nazis; and the life of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist.”—Audiofile Magazine

From the Publisher

08/01/2017
In 1939 Prague, as the grasping Germans sweep in, Otylie Barošová protects a musical score her father cherished by splitting it into three parts. Decades later, an elderly Czech immigrant gives New York-based musicologist Meta Taverner the yellowed pages of an entrancing but incomplete sonata that has the sound of an authentic 18th-century work. Is it by C.P.E. Bach? Mozart? A lesser composer demonstrating sudden genius? A burningly eager Meta sets off to Prague in search of the missing movements and the score's original owner. She's leaving behind a somewhat unsympathetic boyfriend yet heading toward adventure and revelation, as she's helped by a genial concert pianist manqué recommended by her mentor and a Czech American journalist as interested in her as he is in her story. She also encounters those who want the piece for themselves, which adds some suspense as Meta tries, literally, to put all the pieces together. In the pileup of coincidence and details, the language occasionally goes flat, but the narrative moves satisfyingly to the ending you'll know you want. VERDICT A big, fun, page-turning rush of a novel, with Bard professor Morrow (The Forgers) writing wonderfully about music (Meta isn't just a classicist but a metalhead, too). [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.]—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Library Journal

A magnificent obsession sparks Morrow’s gorgeous novel, and Christina Delaine’s narration adds the needed heat. A plot as intricate as a sonata winds together the German occupation of Prague in 1939; an authentic eighteenth-century musical score hidden from the Nazis; and the life of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist in contemporary New York. Delaine’s lush tones allow the characters to take center stage. A Czech immigrant gives Meta one piece of a mysterious eighteenth-century score, asking only that she search for its original owner. Delaine is spot-on at conveying just the right emotions as Meta’s passion grows in her quest to find the composer and the missing parts of the manuscript—and to bring its haunting melodies together. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

2017-07-04
A musical mystery set against the backdrop of a nation shattered by war and loss.How many piano sonatas did Ludwig van Beethoven write? A music student might be quick to say 32—but that disallows the possibility that there's one hidden somewhere or one by Mozart or Haydn that no one has ever seen before. That's the conceit that Morrow (The Forgers, 2014, etc.) spins with this sonically rich novel, in which a Czech woman, Otylie Bartošová, only steps ahead of the German invaders in 1939, divides her inheritance among family and friends—namely, an anonymous Classical-era score given to her by her father and now split up into three, rendering it essentially without value to the avaricious Nazis. On immigrating to America, Otylie loses sight and hope of the treasure—part of which resurfaces years later in contemporary New York, beguiling a musicologist named Meta Taverner, who "knew it was impossible she had stumbled on another Beethoven Werk ohne Opuszahl in deepest, darkest Queens" but presses on, having now found a new source of meaning in a life burdened with quiet tragedies. She goes to Prague, seeking clues. Morrow delights in local color, in the "home of the Golem and crazy Rudolf's equally crazy alchemists, not to mention Kafka's bug," though he works in an intriguing counterintuition: who's to say that the manuscript isn't in Prague, Texas, or Prague, Nebraska? The story, which runs a touch too long, takes a conventional whodunit twist with the introduction of a competing musicologist who wants the glory (and money) for himself even as Meta hits walls that induce a crisis of confidence in her abilities—and therein lies something of a leitmotiv. Yet, with the help of a dogged journalist and other allies, Meta works her way toward a hard-won resolution. As she says, "Sometimes in life what's broken can't be put back together," to which Otylie replies, "Or maybe it was never truly broken at all." An elegant foray into music and memory.

Kirkus Reviews