Lessons in Harmony

A moving and heartfelt new novel from one of Britain's greatest writers.

The year is 1907, and Maurice Ravel is one of the most admired young composers in France. In Belle Epoque Paris, he cuts a charismatic, dandyish figure, whose technically flawless music hides a deep emotional core, and whose unpredictable talent is as hard to pin down as his mysterious personal life.

When Ravel's devoted acolyte Mylo encourages him to take on a new pupil—a rising British composer called Ralph Vaughan Williams—an unlikely cross-channel friendship starts to blossom. An aristocratic Englishman and collector of folk songs, Vaughan Williams appears to have nothing in common with his teacher except that, somehow, each of them seems to represent an archetype of his own country.

But as the shadow of war approaches, their friendship becomes entwined with Mylo's own tragic story. The two friends must pursue their vocation through one of the most turbulent but creative periods in history. Will their differing senses of national identity—one typically French, the other so British—liberate or constrain them?

Lessons in Harmony is a stunning novel about the power of music to create beauty, to freeze time, and, at its greatest, to express the personality not just of its composer, but of an entire nation.