Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on June 6, 2023

As a foster child, Ann Anderson was adopted by Arthur Goldstein, a famous piano teacher who lived near London. She has always refused to read her adoption file and does not know the identity of her biological parents. Arthur changed her first name to Elsa (her middle name is Miracle) and trained her until she attained critical acclaim as a concert pianist.

After dying her hair blue, Elsa messed up while playing Rachmaninov during a concert in Vienna. For two minutes and twelve seconds (a time frame that recurs throughout the novel), Elsa played something that was in her mind, not on the sheet music, something that one listener regarded as remarkable. Elsa then walked off the stage and fled to Greece, where the novel begins.

A woman who looks very much like Elsa purchases some small mechanical horses that Elsa wanted to buy. Elsa seems to have stolen the woman’s hat. Elsa believes she saw the same woman in London. She sees her again in Paris. The woman throws her cigar into Elsa’s drink and runs away. Elsa regards the woman as her psychic double. Could it be that Elsa is seeing herself? Is she seeing the mother who gave her up for adoption? Elsa doesn’t smoke cigars but a student tells her that she smells like cigar smoke. Maybe an English lit professor will read the book and explain it to me.

Elsa gives piano lessons to rich kids during the pandemic as she contemplates whether her career is over. She almost makes love in Greece with a man named Tomas but ultimately pushes him away. Elsa teaches piano to a mentally fragile girl of sixteen in Paris, returns to London, and finally reunites with Arthur on his deathbed in Sardinia, where he is being attended by a longtime friend who has always disliked Elsa. She finds the answers to some of her questions in Sardinia but realizes that her piano teacher has always given her the answers she needs.

While Elsa’s questions are to some extent answered, the reader’s are not. Elsa meets her doppelganger again — they chat and smoke cigars — but the woman’s identity remains a mystery. Elsa comes to wonder whether the woman is her opposite: knowing, sane, and wise, while Elsa is unknowing, crazy, and foolish. Yet they enjoy the same lip balm and both love pets. Whether the woman is real or imagined is presumably unimportant; her role is to force Elsa to think about who she is and who she might become.

I like Deborah Levy’s use of repeating rhythms in her prose, a technique that makes sense in the story of a musician. I like her riff on Montaigne’s “Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man may lay his head.” Elsa would prefer the comfort of ignorance (as do so many people who live in an alternate, fact-free reality), but she forces herself to confront truth before the novel ends. Just what that truth might be is a bit ambiguous, but at least she’s moving toward it. While the novel’s ambiguity is a bit much for me, the story is interesting and Levy’s prose is seductive.

RECOMMENDED

For sure, I enjoyed Deborah Levy’s newest novel. But that’s the only thing I’m sure about when it comes to "August Blue."

Levy’s short tale is for those who love classical music, as it follows a piano virtuoso by the name of Elsa M. Anderson. After botching a performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Vienna, Elsa sees her double, a doppelganger, buying mechanical horses at a market in Athens. The encounter sets off a journey across Europe where Elsa continues to cross paths with the mysterious woman at the oddest of times.

Is Elsa mad and hallucinating? Depressed? Or is her relay of the events accurate? The story is so dreamlike in its telling, so blurred and fuzzy that it could be all, one, some, or none of the above. (I have thoughts, of course. I’m just unable to share them here.)

Be assured that Levy’s obscurity is intentional. She wants readers to draw their own conclusion, to interpret the story in an individual way. And I liked the novel for this reason – it’s refreshing to not always have my hand held while reading.

There’s a lot about "August Blue" that went over my head, though. The metaphors – I know I didn’t catch them all. But I caught enough to know that Levy’s latest is an intelligent work of fiction. Her prose is spare and lovely, every sentence purposeful, every word chosen with care.

No matter that I have lingering questions. That’s what rereads are for.


My sincerest appreciation to Deborah Levy, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒆, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆.

Elsa M. Anderson is a piano virtuoso, a former child prodigy whose foster parents ‘gifted her’ at age six to Arthur Goldstein so he could adopt her and make her a resident pupil at his music school. Success followed, international prizes, Carnegie Hall, work under the greatest conductors, until she ruined it all on stage at the Golden Hall in Vienna. Her life of great acclaim has left her at thirty-four, childless and without any lovers waiting in the wings. He taught her she was the instrument, not the piano. A miracle, even! What happens when the miracle falls apart at the height of her career? The reader learns that she walked off the stage in Vienna, an event she dyed her hair blue for (interesting choice, to my mind, women often make drastic hair changes to express themselves emotionally, something we can control) and then she lost her nerve, had a breakdown of sorts. Arthur had told her in the aftermath that “𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒. 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝐸𝑙𝑠𝑎?”. She has lost herself. She is making mistakes that a miracle would never make, and her job now is teaching young, generally untalented, children music around EuropeI It is a way disappearing. The blue hair, she says, is also a separation from her DNA. A “severing” from her unknown parents. Certainly, there is something loaded with meaning here. There is self-sabotage.

Is Arthur to blame for teaching Elsa at such a young age to detach her mind from commonplace things? Did she detach from her own emotions? Is it possible that a person should never be swallowed entirely by anything exclusively, prodigy or not? Arthur has been her only father, her entire identity has been as a piano virtuoso, but who else is she beyond a musical genius? She doesn’t know.

In Greece for the purpose of working with a thirteen-year-old pupil, she sees a woman at a stall in Athens buying two mechanical dancing horses she wanted for herself. The seller tells her the customer knew she wanted them but was there first and therefore bought them both, leaving Elsa empty-handed. Following the woman, she finds she left behind her trilby hat which Elsa takes, seems only fair. It is also when she decides that she will think of the familiar woman as her double, the stranger who she feels stole something from her. She goes so far as to have conversations with the stranger in her head. They are one in the same, or are they? I find that ‘she feels she stole something from her’ telling, for numerous reasons. Elsa has blown up her own career, Arthur has taken from her too, though, hasn’t he? In a sense, he is her master, she is his creation. She may well have repressed how she feels about this dynamic, about him, her foster parents and about her birth parents. Why make a statement at all, with the blue hair, against the unknown parents if they don’t matter at all? The Isadora Duncan belief about freedom of expression is a rich insight too, has Arthur given Elsa such freedom? Why is she so lonely, why can’t she find the language in music to express herself, what is holding her back?

Her mind is spinning slowly backwards, rummaging through memories of the past. The pandemic is ongoing, which was enough to rock many of the people worldwide into a strange state of being, and she is already unmoored. The woman is wiser than her, what she is projecting unto her at least. There are connections and signs everywhere, but she is actively looking for them too. Her student, Marcus, has similarities to her , wishing to get away from his father, just as Arthur took her away from a humble life but also wishing to choose for himself. Was Elsa’s act of walking off the stage the first time she had true power? With Arthur ailing and all that follows, is this why it is vital she figures out who she is with and without him (the music).

There is a lot to unpack in this smart novel. I am sure I lost the trail a dozen times over. I enjoy the use of a double, a stronger, wiser version of who she wishes to be, is she getting there, to becoming that person? Is she trying to merge with her into one person? There is something in her refusing to ‘plunge a fork into my life and look at it too closely’, what is she protecting herself from? These two women keep playing tag throughout Europe with strange encounters. Of the mystery woman she says, “𝑇𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛, 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓, 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒…” Identity is a trial at different points in most of our lives, if we reflect at all. I’m still scratching my head, I am like Elsa, chasing the characters trying to figure what is happening. Is this a shattered, fractured self or is there something more?

Engaging, at times playful, always mysterious.

Publication Date: June 6, 2023 Available Now

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

This book was so unique! Set in various places in Europe but the main reason I requested it is because the journey started in Greece. The chapters are short and organized in small vignettes. Even though there isn't a lot going on, I was hooked and super intrigued to see where this was going. I really liked Elsa's character and thought the writing was very well done!

Loved this. The whole book felt like I was reading Modiano. But not in a copycat way. Just a very similar style and feel. Dreamy and gauzy. I’m still finding it hard to read about Covid in fiction, and there is a lot of that here in this book.

Atmospheric and page-turning. This was my first book by Deborah Levy and it did not disappoint. I have added her other books to my TBR list. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

This is the third book that i have read in a relatively short space of time that requires ones full attention, plus a great deal of thought. Those who read Deborah Levys novels will not be surprised that this is so. Her books and her writings are markedly original, often like dream sequences that I find compelling.

A woman, in her thirties, a piano prodigy, walks off the stage in the middle of a concert. Why and who she is will become part of the focus of this novel. We follow her across Europe, more so after she spots a woman buying a set of mechanical horses that she wants to but herself. That the woman looks like her, might be her doppelganger, causes her to look everywhere for this woman. She does spot her in various locations and places. Is she being followed and if so for what reason?

A novel about identity, about how important ones own self is dependent on who we are. There are clues in this novel, which is where the paying attention come in. At books end I was able to see what these very dreamlike images meant.

Once again the narrator was terrific but it might have been easier to follow in print.

I really enjoyed August Blue. The writing was effortless to read and felt poetic. I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook; the narrator was calm and had a gentle voice. I loved being transported to Sardinia, Greece, England, and Paris as a professional pianist travels after an unfortunate performance. Levy beautifully portrayed Elsa's relationship with her mentor and surrogate father, as well as the various relationships in her life. The story felt melancholy but not too dreary.

This novel is a whole mood. A book to be read slowly, savored and pondered. Elsa’s exploration of herself through her obsession about a woman she sees in a Grecian marketplace awakens a curiosity about her past/origins. Beautiful.

Published: 06/06/23

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for accepting my request to read and review August Blue.

Bottomline -- I liked this. However, I'm not certain I understood all of it. The synopsis is clear. A gifted pianist is adopted by her piano teacher. This is good storytelling as opposed to being just a book. She grows up and starts questioning in a nut shell everything. The story is like an onion, there are multiple layers and I wasn't always certain what was real and what was a representation of her feelings.

It was beautifully written and I think timeless. Of note, this is more about her finding herself, being adopted is one layer.

This is not a quick read. It's meant to savor. If I was a rereader, this would be on that short list. I could see myself with a mug of coffee, a fire and a rain or snow storm and this. The audiobook would be amazing with all the music titles and places pronounced eloquently.

Why do we read Deborah Levy books? We want that certain quality of the cerebral in the prose, of writing that will tell as much as it will show, explicate as much as it dramatizes. AUGUST BLUE is about a musician coming into confrontation with the black box of her past, who has to leave the safe shell of her art in order to confront that which could break her—or is already breaking her. Which is a great premise, but it's the way in which Levy tells the story and weaves thoughts into feelings and actions that makes the writing sing.

'Do we become someone and then set about visually making that person?'

Ann was born a musical prodigy. After she was adopted by the 'maestro', Arthur, she became Elsa a virtuoso on the piano. 'I was his child prodigy, but I was not his child'. She spends hours and years practicing and perfecting her talent. She is infamous; until one day her hands stop playing her practiced piece mid-concert. Humiliated, she flees the recital, flees the building, and flees the country. As she wanders around a market in Athens, Elsa becomes fascinated by a pair of mechanical dancing horses. With a flip of a hidden switch, they perform for the hands conducting them. It is only then she notices another woman, a veritable twin of a woman, purchasing the horses. As Elsa drifts around post Covid lockdown Europe, she keeps spotting the woman but never seems to catch her eye. She can hear the woman's voice but never has a real conversation. Just who is this doppelganger?

'August Blue' is about discovering your identity and embracing change. 'What I wanted for myself was a new composition'. Deborah Levy writes with poetic phrasing which highlights the nature of Elsa's lyrical ponderings. The tempo of the story changes with Elsa's moods and understanding. 'I was a natural blue. I am a natural blue. I was, I am.' I enjoyed reading this compact book. Its literary nature is compelling enough to draw you in further to discover who Elsa is and what she wants to be. 'I canceled everything I thought I was and let in everything else that came to me.'

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity to read and review this book.

So beautifully written, as is standard with Deborah Levy, in lyrical prose. This was a quick read but was so immersive through the prose and the development of compelling characters with unique backgrounds, exploring deeper themes through art and music.

While this writing style may not be for everyone, it's certainly worth a shot. I'm looking forward to revisiting Levy's previous works after my time with August Blue.

Delighted to include this title in the June edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

(3.5 Stars)

August Blue is a melancholy, reflective book about a woman experiencing self-discovery. Prior to her public error, Elsa's life had been ruled by the rigidity of practice and performance. The shame-induced break she takes allows her to gradually slow down and know herself. It all begins with seeing another woman buy two toy horses in Athens.

Overall, August Blue is a captivating meditative book that focuses on identity, parenthood, performance, and grief. If you enjoy "thinky" books with just a little plot, then August Blue is for you.

August Blue by Deborah Levy is an incisive, brief but deep exploration of self. It is my first work of fiction from Levy, a Booker Prize finalist whose three-part living memoir (Real Estate; Cost of Living; Things I Don’t Want to Know). I really enjoyed how the MC Elsa sort of dreamily rebuilds and reinvents who she is over the short course of this novel, traveling to European countrysides to tutor musical children after she, herself a musical child prodigy, has a breakdown during a global staged performance. Sometimes in a fuge state, and sometimes with extreme clarity, Elsa reenters a post-pandemic world with the same sputters and confusion we can all still relate to and is able to navigate us through to the end…or new beginning.

The audiobook narrator was strong and consistent.

Thank you @netgalley @macmillanaudio and @FSG for the ALC!

genre: general fiction
pub day: 6/6/23
rating: 5/5

August Blue is the first novel I've read by Deborah Levy, but it's easy to see why she is held in such esteem. There is a haunting, contemplative lyricism to her writing that kept me engrossed in this book, even though it's not at all a plot-driven story.

After a public fall from grace on stage in Vienna, renowned pianist Elsa M. Anderson finds herself in Greece, where she's come to teach private piano lessons. Across the public market, she watches a strangely familiar woman buying a pair of mechanical horses. As she travels across Europe, the woman seems to shadow her as she spirals into fraught memories and tries to come to terms with her past in order to move forward with her life.

August Blue is a cerebral, character-driven story, beautifully written and metaphorical. In many ways it's a simple story about a woman rediscovering herself, but at the same time it's a complex examination of womanhood, childhood trauma, artistic expression, the constraints of talent, and the manifestations of grief. It left me with lots of questions, but I was mesmerized and entranced by the journey Levy took me on and I was content with not knowing all the answers. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the advance reading opportunity.

I've never read a Levy book before, but did know going in that they're usually dense with surrealism. In this intriguing novel, Elsa is a piano prodigy who abruptly stops playing in the midst of a big performance. She takes off and roams through Greece, where she sees her "double," a woman in a green raincoat who looks almost like her. Elsa's journey of self-discovery was unique, but a bit too surreal for me. At times I wished for a more clear-cut narrative, so that I could truly connect with the character. I listened to this one as well, and Alix Dunmore does a lovely job narrating this story. If you're a Levy fan, you'll most likely enjoy this one. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

There’s a touch of madness to Levy’s latest. In the opening pages, we meet a disgraced former child prodigy, a pianist, wandering the streets of Athens. We follow her in pursuit of a doppelgänger, hopping around Europe and perhaps reality itself. We have hints that not all is right in the world, with unstable markers of identity, a questionable COVID-era sequence of events, and a mysterious mentor / surrogate-father who is preternaturally aging away in Sardinia. The prose is sly, the star of the show, as the book really shines on the sentence level. We get a bevy of allusions, from 19th and 20th century composers to choreographer Isadora Duncan to auteur Agnès Varda to the multifaceted Josephine Baker and others. An engagement with the artists referenced, from Rachmaninov and Mozart on down the line, adds a further layer of interest. I can understand reviews that highlight the ways this doesn’t quite cohere. That’s a fair take, but I don’t think the pieces are meant to fit. Living in a world awash with overwritten prose, it’s refreshing to see a book where loose ends are unafraid to remain loose ends. Many thanks to the US publisher, FSG, for approving a digital ARC via Netgalley.

A dreamy meditation on art and family relationships. The protagonist was interesting but very frustrating at times. I didn’t always understand the point of this book, besides being a character study. I liked it but not a standout.