This short novel is set just after Covid when most people were still wearing masks, this adds to the air of mystery that permeates the book. A famous young pianist Elsa is dealing with the fallout from messing up a recital. Here a better knowledge of classical music might have helped me understand parts of the story a little more. Elsa spots someone in a flea market who she thinks is her double and they subsequently engage in a game of cat and mouse through three European cities. The story also focuses on her relationship with Arthur who adopted her as a child protege and was responsible for her successful career. She tries in a rather languid way to break out from her rigid existence and also dwells on the mystery of her earlier, pre Arthur, life. The story has a dreamy quality with various minor characters drifting in and out, it carries the reader along, however although like all of Deborah Levy’s novels it is well written I couldn’t engage with Elsa and that rather spoilt my enjoyment.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for an ARC

It's a quick read, comparatively, this novel, and if you didn't know it was written by Levy beforehand, you'd soon realise it was. Protagonist Elsa dyes her long hair blue, bucking the trend. She's a classical pianist and she spots someone she thinks she's related to, or who is her doppelgänger. Speaking personally, I'm fascinated by the idea of doubles (twins, doppelgängers, strange similarities etc.) so for me, this is a compelling theme. It's not surprising, then, that for me, If anything, I think Levy could have played a bit more on that analogy. After all, Levy loves a good analogy, so... The quality of the writing is, as you'd expect, brilliant. It'll be surprising if the awards don't start rolling in for this one.

Grateful thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the early copy.

I loved this book and I'm not really sure why which may sound daft but I just sort of wallowed in the book until I'd finished and then felt sad I had. I felt a connection with Elsa, frozen or not and loved her relationship with Arthur. Every other page or so a sentence would really connect with me and I would stop and think so maybe that's why I loved it so much. Also the East Anglian connection. I loved the writing style and the characters were well crafted and believable. The doppelganger storyline was very well done. I
The blurb/plot people can read for themselves, it's not for a review to spill the beans
A few errors- medical and a time frame is reversed but that didn't stop me loving the book and I'm sure these can be corrected
Loved it

I went from enjoying and appreciating Levy's novels to becoming slightly obsessed with her last year after reading her autobiographical trilogy, which were superb. Then I listened to her being interviewed on The Great Women Artists' podcast and my obsession kicked up a notch. I was so excited when I got the chance to review August Blue and I wasn't disappointed.

Elsa is an acclaimed concert pianist who spectacularly unravels on stage in Vienna. The trauma pushes her into a kind of self-imposed exile and we follow her around Europe in the aftermath of the disaster as she teaches piano and attempts to figure out what is happening to her.

There is so much to unpack in this short novel I don't entirely know where to start. For me there are elements of Virginia Woolf as we plunge into and out of Elsa's experiences and the landscape through which she moves. It has that Woolfian, dreamlike quality that I love. There is a surrealist edge as thought, dream and reality blur and entwine and you are never quite sure which element is driving the book forward. The landscape, which is integral to the plot is rendered with painterly intensity and yet it is music which provides the tempo and drive. There are cinematic elements which allow you to connect to what is happening and altogether this is a novel which pulls on and demands that you attend with all your senses. I have only just finished it and I already want to start reading it again.

Elsa, once known as Ann, is a renowned concert pianist who has some kind of breakdown on stage while playing Rachmaninov. The book tracks the stream of events which follow in Greece, Paris, London and Sardinia. Elsa was adopted at the age of six by a famous musician, Arthur Goldstein, on the basis of her musical talent so the realisation that she can no longer play, whether genuine or otherwise, is enormously destructive. This is especially so because Arthur is slowly dying.

The other key element in the novel is that Elsa has a doppelgänger. Wherever she goes she sees a woman, apparently her double and their interactions are somehow important in the development of the story.

Throughout the novel, Elsa notices disparate things – events, people, landscapes – and applies some kind of significance to them. In a sense, they become signifiers just because they are observed and they also reveal something about her state of mind. There are several possibilities and explanations lurking in her past!

The enigmatic core of the book and the random observations will get up the nose of some readers while others will enjoy floating in the stream with Ella. As to whether it all adds up to something at the end is hard to decide and it’s not even certain that Ella has come to terms with her breakdown. Having said that, the observations are astutely described and the prose is rich and textured so if you can enjoy the ride without knowing exactly where you’re going then this book is for you.

I found this even more intense and abstract than previous dalliances with Levy’s work, and I have no interest in classical music which forms a large part of this novel, and yet I loved it. How can something so seemingly deep and conceptual be so readable? Why did I care so much about the fates of Elsa and the double she keeps seeing around Europe and her ageing musical mentor Arthur? Who can say, but I did.

'If she was my double and I was hers, was it true that she was knowing, I was unknowing, she was sane, I was crazy, she was wise, I was foolish? That summer, the air was electric between us as we transmitted our feelings to each other across three countries.'

Well, it's Levy, so I am somewhat predisposed to love it. I've read Things I Dont Want to Know and Real Estate previously, and devoured them in days. When I got approved for the ARC of August Blue - I was SO excited! She's perhaps my favorite contemporary literary author. I raced through the book in a day - I simply could not put it down. I like Levy’s tone of voice, her sense of humour, her look at life, and the way she builds the story. Levy writes beautiful sentences, explores fascinating ideas and constructs novels that puzzle and linger for a long time after reading. By the end of the novel, we begin to see Elsa reach for her own uncertain true selves. The suggestion is made that tentative steps may be opening up opportunities for a more authentic future, with perhaps further creative leaps towards developing her own voice.

the book cover is PHENOMENAL - as only you'd expect from levy, it truly hooks you in.
I am so grateful to publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this 6 months early - i loved it. I found this novel to be absolutely breathtaking. And it gets a full 5 stars from me.

"August Blue" by Deborah Levy is a captivating and thought-provoking novel that explores the complexities of human relationships and the power of art. The narrative follows a young artist named Blue who, after a chance encounter, embarks on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth. Throughout the book, Blue grapples with the meaning of love, the impact of family, and the role of art in shaping our lives.

Levy's writing is both evocative and insightful, capturing the inner turmoil of Blue with vivid imagery and poetic prose. The lack of quotation marks in dialogue can be both a strength and a weakness. It adds to the fluidity of the inner dialogue, which plays a crucial role in the story, allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves in Blue's thoughts and emotions. On the other hand, it can be confusing for some readers who are used to the traditional dialogue format.

The character development is excellent, and the story gradually unfolds in unexpected ways, leaving the reader eager to see what comes next. The themes of art, identity, and relationships are woven together seamlessly, making "August Blue" a rich and satisfying read.

Levy's writing is powerful and evocative, capturing the complexities of identity and the fluidity of time in a way that is both poignant and haunting. The themes of time, doubling, and shattered identity are woven together in a way that is both thought-provoking and emotionally charged.

Overall, I highly recommend "August Blue" to anyone looking for a thought-provoking and emotionally charged novel. Deborah Levy's writing is exceptional, and the story is sure to leave a lasting impact on the reader. If you're a fan of literary fiction and are looking for a unique and memorable reading experience, "August Blue" is a must-read.

As usual, Levy’s writing is puzzling and dazzling. It left me confused, but do I want anything clear from her? No. I’m happy. Her writing flows like a fever dream. But I always like that about her writing.

There was a lot of writing on classical music. I don’t know much about it and am not interested in it, so I was a bit bored at times but if you love music, then you will adore this book.

Further cements Levy as the Fellini of contemporary lit: playfully symbolic, pellucidly effervescent and great fun.

I'm as keen on Deborah Levy's three volumes of "living autobiography" as anyone (although what other kind of autobiography is there?), but it may be that their success has distracted readers from appreciating the quality of the recent novels, judging from some of the early responses to August Blue. At first it seems a vivid but slight novel, but this is deceptive as it gradually reveals itself to be a fascinating exploration of issues around art, creativity and identity. Its elusiveness is written into the novel - characters and events are not clearly depicted, revelations do not appear and the allusiveness of the title is left open. In fact, the novel is at least in part about openness and the difficulty of interpretation. As Elsa (the name is a clue) says at one point: "And what about my double, who perhaps was not physically identical? To think about her was to speak to someone known, inside myself, some who was slightly mysterious to me, some who was listening very attentively." August Blue demands this kind of attentive listening, it has hidden depths that meant its slightly unsettling atmosphere stayed with me for days, weeks even, after finishing it. Perhaps we should read it in dialogue with the autobiographies. Elsa also thinks late in the novel: "In a way, courage was my problem. Not lack of it. The way courage silenced everything else." August Blue itself also has this quality and we're lucky to have in Deborah Levy a writer who has both this courage and the need to question it.

What can I say? I enjoyed this novel but on finishing I felt as if I should have gotten more out of it than I did. Other reviewers have broken down all its parts and commented on their relevance or what they symbolise. I can’t say I picked up on these but nevertheless I enjoyed the writing style and the story.

The writing was funny and smart, I just didn't care for the characters or the plot unfortunately. Will be trying other Levy books for sure though!

3.5. This was an entertaining and short novel, a new one for Levy, to be published later in May this year. The story revolves around a world-famous pianist who freezes up in a performance and has since then dyed her hair blue and set around Europe teaching children how to play piano instead. The novel, despite its size, moves through Athens, Paris, Sardinia, London. Elsa, the fallen pianist protagonist, spots a woman at the beginning of the novel buying toy horses in a market and decides that she is her double, her doppelganger. Where the doppelganger is usually used as a terrifying motif, here Levy uses it lightly, and at times I wondered what it really brought to the narrative. Likewise, Levy chose to set the novel post-COVID, so lots of people are still wearing masks, her double, at times, included. Another reviewer said this could be an addition to the hidden identities in the book: maybe so. Another reviewer (or the same?) also identified the allusions to the Disney film <i>Frozen</i> (allusions I did not pick up on, having never seen the film). Elsa, who was once called Ann, are apparently references in themselves. I can't remember the others. Anyway, it's another book about a lonely woman facing up to something, in this case, her failings as a pianist. It's light, interesting and with a subtle, and good, sense of humour, too. Years ago I read Levy's <i>Hot Milk</i> (before I was a big reader, actually) and remember feeling somewhere between confused and impressed... Maybe I'll read that again one day. When this comes out in May, I recommend it for a short and entertaining read that'll have you pondering a few things. Thanks to Penguin for the advance copy for review.

I really enjoyed this but the style probably isn’t for everyone (if I hadn’t known better I’d have guessed I was reading something in translation, it reminds me of Jhumpa Lahiri’s more recent work in Italian). I very much enjoyed following a year-ish in Elsa’s life across Europe although I found the plot secondary to the more descriptive elements of the novel - it’s very atmospheric. Recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is the story of Elsa, a concert pianist, who has had a trauma at a recent performance which seems to given her a form of paranoia. She was adopted by Arthur, a piano teacher, at a young age, and hasn't really thought about her birth mother or past, but now starts having memories and questioning herself.
Very lovely writing, but not much plot.

I got an ARC from the publisher and was instantly elated. In m y mind, I love Deborah Levy, her writing is fantastically good, having seen her in the flesh in Oxford a few years ago (review here: https://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/feature/13501/deborah-levy-the-cost-of-living) I was in awe. She cuts an imposing figure and covers important, transcendent issues like the patriarchy, the psychology of dread, and "motivated forgetting." She's an excellent writer.
And yet, there's always something inaccessible in there. I found myself baffled through much of August Blue. I could follow the plot but what was really going on? I had no idea. Was this a woman struggling with an identity crisis after an on stage failure (the main character is a pianist).
Other reviewers have picked up on deliberate or perhaps unintentional mistakes, I was more into the flow except when I honestly couldn't follow anymore. What was up with the trilby hat? The non stop travelling?
Unfortunately there is a part of Levy's work that doesn't translate. I've found this with all her books that I've read to date. You start and you love it and it's amazing and then something small falls apart and it's gone. It's not all over, you still rate her but it's not ideal genius perfection as initially thought.
Mostly baffled.

First of all, my thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book via NetGalley. I should confess up front to being a huge fan of Levy’s work, so I was very excited to get an advance copy of this new book and keen to read it as soon as I could. Levy writes beautiful sentences, explores fascinating ideas and constructs novels that puzzle and linger for a long time after reading. I struggle to think of much more I could ask for in a book.

There’s a lot in August Blue that doesn’t fall into place immediately. Levy’s previous novel “The Man Who Saw Everything” was the same (it’s sort of a trademark, I think). I read “The Man…” three times and I’m still not at all sure I got to the bottom of it. In one of my reviews for that book (second reading, I think), I wrote:

"Most of all, I noticed more and more references to time being messed around. It would be a spoiler to discuss this much, but it seems appropriate that a book that plays with time so much requires this second reading when the future (the upcoming pages) is known so the present (the current page) can be projected into it. There's still something Schrodinger-esque about the the book for me - multiple, contradictory possibilities existing simultaneously."

For me, this holds, but more so, in August Blue. Time and identity are fractured here which leads to some odd apparent contradictions. But I read these not so much as contradictions but as indicators of the almost dream-like nature of the book. One thing I particularly love about Levy’s writing is the way she introduces ideas and then keeps bringing them back into the narrative at different points as illustrations or expansions of new ideas and topics. As one random example here, Elsa, our protagonist, touches the foot of a statue as she walks past it and notices that it is worn and she is clearly not the first person to do that. This idea is referenced several more times through the book. When this keeps happening, and it happens a LOT, it increases the feeling of being in a dream or inside the mind of someone who is struggling to hold everything together.

This kind of stuff puts me in mind of David Lynch’s movies (who else could make movies where characters seem to age at different rates?). So, fundamentally, I don’t think the task in reading August Blue is to make a logical, rational explanation of it. I don’t think it’s about a logical, rational story. I think it’s more storytelling where reality is warped to convey images and emotions. And I think I love it all the more for taking that approach. It’s exactly the kind of thing I am exploring in my photography at the moment - blending and warping what the camera sees to create something that has it’s starting point in reality but conveys something with an otherworldly feel.

I don’t want to say anything about the story you will read if you pick up a copy of August Blue. I read it with a smile on my face the whole way through: the beautiful writing, the repeating motifs, the sense of unreality, the emotions conveyed … the list goes on. So, I’d rather leave it for you to discover it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I think I might have found my new favourite Deborah Levy book.

I thought this was brilliant! I like Levy’s tone of voice, her sense of humour, her look at life, and the way she builds the story. It’s a sad and lonely one, mysterious and intriguing. And even though I didn’t understand all of it, I loved every word of it.
Thank you very much Penguin and Netgalley for the ARC.

The latest novel from an author whose previous three 21st Century novels (“Swimming Home”, “Hot Milk” and “The Man Who Saw Everything”) have been Booker longlisted (the first two Booker shortlisted and the last two Goldsmith Prize shortlisted) and who has also published a deservedly critically acclaimed Living Autobiography trilogy (“Things I Don’t Want to Know”, “The Cost of Living” and the particularly brilliant “Real Estate”).

There is a certain enigmatic quality to Levy’s fiction (although her contemporaneous non fiction writing does help to bring a certain clarity to it).

About “Hot Milk” I wrote “the narrative serves more as a device to set up a series of tableaux filled with striking imagery …. [which is] internally consistent and coherent building up a picture of female identity”.

For the brilliant “The Man Who Saw Everything” I found it easily the most enigmatic book on the Booker longlist (and one of the strongest), referred to a “final disintegration of any attempt at a conventional narrative … [justifiably] sacrificed on the alters of ideas and analogy” and was fascinated by the multiple possible interpretations (I read and discussed it twice with my two closest Goodreads friends and we all majored on different elements of the book in our reviews and readings).

This novel I think, at least on a first reading, was perhaps closer to “Hot Milk” although with it not due to being published until May, I am intrigued to see what other interpretations and lenses other readers bring to bear on the book - as well as on some of its anomalies which unlike “The Man Who Saw Everything” I was unable to easily relate to the book’s central idea.

I did wonder if my lack of knowledge of and (being honest) interest in classical music hindered my appreciation and understanding of the novel.

The novel is narrated in first person by Elsa M. Anderson. Fostered at a very young age in Suffolk (birth name Ann), she was at 6 taken under the wing of Arthur Goldstein (who knows her birth mother’s identity – but which Elsa has always chosen not to discover) and moved with him to his music school in London and then on via the Royal Academy of Music to become a world class/famous classical pianist.

Three weeks before the September in which the book starts, Elsa, now 34, how had already in some kind of mid-career crisis dyed her famously long brown hair blue (hence the book’s title), froze (pun not intended but acknowledged) during a concert in Vienna playing the wrong music and then walked off the stage and seemingly away from her concert career. She is now travelling around cities (starting in Athens), meeting with some friends and taking on some private music tuition.

The book opens in a flea market – where she watches (and is watched and recognised) by a woman of similar age – the woman buys the last two of some mechanical dancing horses Elsa is interested in but leaves behind a trilby which Elsa then adopts. And as Elsa travels around she becomes convinced that the woman is some form of double and that she spots her as she moves around (London in October and December, Paris in November and then August, Sardinia in July) in a COVID world (with masks playing a prominent role – presumably symbolic of hidden identities).

And Elsa meditates and reflects on classical music and dance and much more besides – all of this against a background of Elsa coming to terms with her sudden career hiatus, what was behind her abandonment by her birth mother – the twin horses triggering early memories which draw her closer to her origins) and her relationship to the now Sardinia-based, ill and ageing Arthur (who to her surprise has a lover) – all of which causes her to reflect on her seemingly unravelling identity in the world – and all of this refracted through the absence/presence and even voice in her head of her double.

3.5 stars rounded up as I believe new depths to the novel will emerge around publication.