Book of the Month–October 2013
The Blue Guitar
Ann Ireland
Toby Hausner is a gifted classical guitar player living in Toronto. He has not performed in public since he had a breakdown during a competition in Paris a decade ago. He has recovered from his illness with the help of his therapist lover but the carefully structured life they have created is beginning to feel smothering to Toby who is considering a return to performing.
Toby prepares for an international guitar competition in Montreal, aware that a re-entry into this world will also expose him to the pressures that led to his breakdown. Others at the competition include Lucy, a mother with teenage children who worries that she is too old to start a music career and Cuban judge Manuel who is considering defecting to Canada. Teenager Trace is also in Montreal but is uncertain whether she wants to commit to the stressful music lifestyle.
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Book Reviews:
National Post
Quill and Quire
Toronto Star
About the Author
Ann Ireland was born in Toronto and studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1976.
The Blue Guitar is Ireland’s fourth novel. Her first, A Certain Mr. Takahashi was published in 1985 and won both the Seal First Novel Award and the Books in Canada/W.H. Smith First Novel Award. She is the coordinator of the Writing Workshops Department at the Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University and is working on her fifth novel Where’s Bob.
Author Interviews:
Read Alikes
If you liked The Blue Guitar, you may also enjoy:
Other Books by Ann Ireland
A Certain Mr. Takahashi
The Instructor
Exile
Other Fiction
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
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