An exceptional debut novel by an Australian author, and winner of the 2016 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction.


Alice Murray learns to play the piano aged three on an orange orchard in rural Australia. Recognising her daughter’s gift, her mother sends Alice to boarding school in the bleak north of England, and there Alice stays for the rest of her childhood. Then she’s offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, and on a summer school in Oxford she meets Edward, an economics professor who eventually becomes her husband and her keeper.

Immediately Alice finds that Edward is damaged, and she’s trapped. She clings to her playing and to her dream of becoming a concert pianist, until disaster strikes. Increasingly isolated as the years unravel, eventually Alice can’t find it in herself to carry on. Then she hears the most beautiful music from the walls of her house . . .

This novel’s love story is that of a woman who must embrace life again if she is to survive. Inspiring and compelling, it explores the dark terrain of violence and the transformative powers of music and love.

Read this one a couple of months ago while travelling and since then I've often thought back on it. It's a very powerful and tragic story by an Australian author, and as a debut novel it's superb. I almost gave up half way through though, as I found it very emotionally difficult to read, with Edward's behaviour and Alice's predicament so upsetting I was moved to tears. But I persevered and so glad I did. The way Morrison writes about music is so extraordinary.

I won't even attempt to review the book, I can't find the words to do it justice, so will direct you to the Readings Book Blog:
Why you should read Music and Freedom by Zoë Morrison

Definitely worth reading.

Chosen from the OZ VBB so off across the continent to jeniwren.
Hope you enjoy it.

Thankyou and I remember having a copy as it was scheduled for my bookgroup. However I was not able to read before the discussion and then passed on the read and passed on my copy. So now I have the opportunity to read it finally.