With his father dead, a gifted, fourteen-year-old pianist finds himself sent away from his Caribbean home against his will, to study classical music in the U.S. with a family friend he’s never met. His first angry, frightened step away from the controlling mother he’s never been able to reach becomes a sharp break with her expectations: he leaps into the dramatic and cutthroat world of opera. In this high-stakes milieu, his fierce desire to be a star fires both his brilliance and the dark distrust of women and of love that is the legacy of his childhood, a legacy that threatens his career, his impulsive marriage, and the young daughter he never wanted.
Praise for The Changing of Keys
“Carolyn Jack delivers a powerful story of family and the trauma of familial dysfunction that can span generations. In beautifully rendered prose, she reminds us of the essential role the arts and creative expression play in making us fully human. This tale of love, loss, and human frailty will stay with you long after the last page.”
—John Grogan, international bestselling author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog and the memoir The Longest Trip Home
“How she can write! Here are grandeur and piercing moral insight. A very promising start to what will be a great career.”
—Benjamin Taylor, author of Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather and Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth
“A lush, elegant aria of a novel, The Changing of Keys will transport—with gorgeous, tender lyricism—the reader into the mind of a musical prodigy in search of meaning…. David Copperfield meets Norwegian Wood, this novel will break your heart only to mend it in startling and marvelous ways.”
— Naheed Phiroze Patel, author of A Mirror Made of Rain
“Remarkable… I could hardly put it down. It’s so infused with feeling, atmosphere, and texture, and the innovative way of transitioning from father to daughter is as surreal as it is captivating. I am completely gobsmacked by the poetry and pertinent detail of the writing.”
—Donald Rosenberg, author of The Cleveland Orchestra Story: Second to None
“A wickedly smart and thoroughly engaging writer, Jack writes with verve. The enthusiasm she has for exploring the obsessions and desires that rule the lives of her characters is contagious.”
—Elissa Schappell, co-founder of Tin House literary magazine and author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls
“It’s precisely the kind of novel so many of us are pining for – a modern classic of a literary novel with an unexpected, glamorous setting and a devastating family history.”
—Ira Silverberg, literary editor and consultant
“With extraordinary literary style, Carolyn Jack deftly weaves the complexities of brilliant talent, the intense pressure of the world of opera, and the dark repercussions of a mother’s emotional neglect into a beguiling tale of heartache.”
—Morgan Howell, author of The Moon Won’t Talk
“Carolyn Jack’s, The Changing of Keys is a bold and riveting story, told by a brilliantly unreliable narrator who both charms and dismays as he rises to fame in the world of classical opera. Chained to ambition, haunted by the past, he is a stunning character, tangled in complexities, surprising the reader at every turn.”
—Megan Staffel, author of The Notebook of Lost Things and The Causative Factor
“No word is out of place in this riveting portrait of a man trapped by his past and the ghost of a cold and wounded mother. Jack writes with elegance and clarity, and with a clear-sighted emotional force that compels us to care about an intractable character who demands love he cannot return and is gifted with a great talent he fails to nurture, but who remains unfailingly human in the midst of his consuming and lonely grief.”
—Thérèse Soukar Chehade, author of We Walked On
