Music and Freedom

A gripping and beautifully written novel for fans of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout.'I have no use for forgiveness, not yet. But other ideas like that, kindness, for example, I think that is fundamental. Resurrection; I like that too. And love, of course, love, love, love.'Alice Murray learns to play the piano aged three on an orange orchard in rural Australia. Recognising her daughter’s gift, her mother sends Alice to boarding school in the bleak north of England, and there Alice stays for the rest of her childhood. Then she’s offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, and on a summer school in Oxford she meets Edward, an economics professor who sweeps her off her feet.Alice soon finds that Edwards is damaged, and she’s trapped. She clings to her playing and to her dream of becoming a concert pianist, until disaster strikes. Increasingly isolated as the years unravel, eventually Alice can’t find it in herself to carry on. Then she hears the most beautiful music from the walls of her house …This novel’s love story is that of a woman who must embrace life again if she is to survive. Inspiring and compelling, it explores the dark terrain of violence and the transformative powers of music and love.About the AuthorZoë Morrison is the author of the novel Music and Freedom, shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. She has a DPhil in Human Geography from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, before working as a college lecturer. Her research work has included the fields of gendered violence and social justice. Zoë also studied piano performance at the Adelaide Conservatorium of Music. She lives in Melbourne.