Grace Atherton leads a quiet and lonely life in a small English town where she owns a music shop. She used to play the cello but stopped after she was thrown out of music school. Since then she hasn’t played the cello but has dedicated her life to making and repairing string instruments.
For eight years, she’s been in a long-distance relationship with a married man who won’t leave his wife until their children grow up, so Grace keeps herself busy making the perfect cello to enter the Cremona Triennale Competition in Italy. When a shocking event turns her life upside down, risking everything she has worked for, Grace realises that she is not as alone as she thought. She can count on her friendship with Nadia, her young shop assistant, and Mr. Williams, her wise elder customer.
This novel is completely engrossing with realistic, likable, and engaging characters, an emotional, mesmerising, and inspiring plot, and an atmospheric setting that takes the reader from England to Paris to Cremona in Italy. Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, this is a brilliant novel about friendship, heartbreak and music, which will stay with you for a while after you finished reading it. (NP)
