MUSIC & SILENCE

Winner of the Whitbread Award, this brilliant historical novel deals with the continual struggle between light and dark, summer and winter, good and evil. Set at the court of Christian IV of Denmark in 1629, the novel's scenes unfurl like a gray and white Bergman film. With deep intuition, Jenny Agutter interprets the complex loyalties of ambitious courtiers, the longings of marginalized women, and the fabulous dreamings of Marcus. Her emotional range is astonishing--from sexual rage to exhausted despair, she finds perfect pitch in each moment. Such a complicated novel, filled with a myriad of strong characters and an interwoven plot that takes place in many locations, commands mesmerized attention. B.H.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 02]