Description

Gustav Perle grows up lonely and watchful in post-war Switzerland, aching for a closeness his own mother cannot give him.

In a small Swiss town still marked by the moral compromises of the Second World War, Gustav finds the companionship he longs for in Anton Zwiebel, a brilliant, fragile boy whose music expresses what neither of them can say aloud. Their bond, forged in childhood in the late 1940s, deepens into an intense attachment that neither fully understands.

The Gustav Sonata follows Gustav and Anton through love, disappointment, and the slow realisation of what they have lost as a result of fear and restraint. Set between the 1940s and early 2000s, The Gustav Sonata is a twentieth-century historical novel that asks what it means to love someone you cannot fully claim, and whether tenderness can survive decades of silence.

‘A perfect novel about life’s imperfection… Tremain is writing at the height of her inimitable powers’ Kate Kellaway, Observer

‘Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect… Glorious’ The Times

Publisher Review

This is a perfect novel about life's imperfection... Tremain is writing at the height of her inimitable powers... Remarkable and moving novel. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer * The Gustav Sonata is a magnificent novel, heartbreaking, unsentimental and beautifully written, and it reinforces my opinion that there are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain. -- John Boyne * The Irish Times * Beautifully tender and brilliantly written novel... A tale of the most powerful part of any friendship: love. ***** * Stylist * In The Gustav Sonata, Tremain once again proves herself to be a writer of exceptional talent ... Previous novels like The Road Home have already showcased her staggering sensitivity and capacity for empathy but they're here again, magnificently undiminished. Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion ... and it's ultimately this understanding that has produced another exquisite book -- Matt Cain * i * Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect... Glorious. -- Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *