Double trouble

Deborah Levy returns with another atmospheric novel, about a concert pianist who loses her way.

- KIRAN DASS

AUGUST BLUE, by Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton, $40)

Before the Russian composer and virtuoso pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his iconic Piano Concerto No. 2, he was gripped by a heavy depression. He credited the eventual lifting of this ennui to treatment by hypnosis, which breathed creative fire back into him, enabling him to finish the work. In Deborah Levy's hypnotic eighth novel, Elsa M Anderson the "M" stands for Miracle - is a renowned concert pianist, a former child prodigy whose hands are insured in the US for millions. In a humiliating aberration, she loses her place while performing Rachmaninoff's piece in Vienna and walks off stage and away from performing music.