Amélie the maid’s daily trials with this depressed animal are a subplot more striking than the composer’s familiar turmoil and bloody phlegm. Much more than Stevens’s previous books, her novel makes space for the uncelebrated labour on which creativity depends.
Instead, she follows the story and what matters to the characters in it. Stevens is not a writer who worries about mechanics and fidelity to the historical account. Nevertheless it’s jarring when Blanca describes herself as 'neurotic', and it’s unclear why she is not surrounded by other ghosts. Employing an impossible narrator is one way to sidestep the pedantry that historical fiction can fall into.
Stevens is brilliant at describing desire.
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