The Music Stalker

by Bruce J Berger

Overview

"A tale that shines a light on the redemptive power of religion and relationships." -Kirkus Reviews

Kayla Covo is a child piano prodigy. In mid-1970's New York City, she vaults to fame, holding audiences in awe with her uncanny musical ability and warm smile. But deep within her lie the seeds of destruction: the paranoid fear of being stalked by a murderous fan. The Music Stalker closely examines how genius and love might survive in a close-knit family torn by trauma, insanity, and jealousy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684337910
Publisher:	Black Rose Writing
Publication date:	10/28/2021
Series:	A Covo Family Saga , #2
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Following a 40-year career as a trial attorney in Washington, DC., Bruce J. Berger turned fulltime to writing, earned a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University, and now teaches there. His first novel, The Flight of the Veil, is a sequel to The Music Stalker and achieved critical success. Kirkus Review called it, "A well-crafted tale about trauma and miracles. Get it." He has also published more than 50 stories and poems.

Editorial Reviews

"What drives the characters of The Music Stalker to their highs and lows, their togetherness and their times apart, is also what artfully holds them locked in patterns of an intricate harmony . . . Bruce J. Berger exhibits a sensational knack for imagining lives, real lives lived with triumph and weakness, mental illness and ordered reason, as well as daily flubs and foibles. His skills make for a page turner . . . " -David Keplinger, author of The World to Come

From the Publisher

2021-08-20
Berger offers a novel about healing a troubled past with the power of family and faith.

Kayla Covo is a piano prodigy whose gift for interpreting music pieces has won her international acclaim. As a teenage virtuoso, she travels the world, leaving audiences spellbound by the beauty of her performances and by her own personal charm. But behind her warm smile lie secrets that haunt her sleep. Her mother’s schizophrenia, which Kayla inherited, resulted in a childhood full of confusion and fear. Now, Kayla’s own worsening mental illness leads her down a path of paranoia and isolation, deepening a rift between her and her brother, Max, whose jealousy threatens to tear their relationship apart. Struggling to cope with the pressures of stardom, Kayla finds the line between reality and hallucination getting increasingly blurred, and she believes that a nightmarish man with malevolent intent is pursuing her. She flees the career she’s built and finds solace in her Jewish faith, surrendering herself to a local Chabad—an Orthodox Jewish community—and seeking protection from demons without and disquiet within. Berger’s work is occasionally frightening, but it’s ultimately about finding the strength to accept others, and ourselves, as we are. Much of this emotional story is told in the form of a candid letter from Kayla’s brother, Max, to his estranged children, in which he effectively captures the legacy of the previous generation and welcomes his twins into the loving Covo home. Although Berger’s work is replete with depictions of life with mental illness, it’s never reductive or one-dimensional. Instead, it immerses readers in the lives and perceptions of those with psychological differences. It’s also about the power of family members to pull loved ones back from isolation and distress, even when they’re suffering themselves.

A tale that shines a light on the redemptive power of religion and relationships.

Kirkus Reviews