GRADUAL

The celebrated fantasist offers a rumination on what time is to us and how we perceive it, or take it for granted. Alesandro Sussken is a composer, growing up in a fascist state currently at war with another equally faceless opponent. His brother is sent off to fight, his family destroyed by grief. Occasionally Alesandro catches glimpses of islands in the far distance from the shore, and they feed into his music, music for which he is fêted. But all knowledge of the other islands is forbidden to the junta, until Alesandro is unexpectedly sent on a cultural tour. What he discovers on his journey will change his perceptions of his country, his music and the ways of the islands themselves. It is a book about travel through place, time, relationships and the developments of one man's art, a book about enjoying the journey as much as arriving. 346pp in paperback.