First published 2016
In the frozen landscape of Stalinist Russia, composer Dmitri Shostakovich stands at the razor's edge between artistic survival and political destruction. His music becomes a dangerous weapon, each composition a potential death sentence under Stalin's brutal cultural regime. Repeatedly summoned, interrogated, and threatened, Shostakovich navigates a world where a wrong note could mean exile or execution. His only weapons are his musical genius and an almost surgical ability to survive—creating art that simultaneously placates and subtly resists the state's murderous demands. As political winds shift unpredictably, he must transform personal terror into musical resistance, knowing that every symphony could be his last. At its heart, this is a story of one artist's desperate struggle to preserve his creative soul under the most oppressive system imaginable.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, music, 21st-century, political-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: political-oppression, survival
Setting: Russia, Stalinist Russia
Period: 20th-century
270 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Press Large Print
Content warnings: violence