The Student Conductor

Second-Hand

Slight yellowing of pages, otherwise excellent condition

An unexpected love story, a political parable, and an intimate portrait of regeneration, The Student Conductor is one of the finest debut novels in years. 

Cooper Barrow has returned to the competitive fray of the orchestral world after eight years of exile - bringing his prodigious talent and insecurity into Frankfurt and Berlin just at the moment that the Berlin Wall falls.

Barrow is to study under the cruel hand of a capricious maestro, Karlheinz Ziegler - a man who carries boundless shame from his days in a Nazi concentration camp, and who will force Barrow to define himself within a morally ambiguous world.

But when Barrow encounters the beautiful and boldly sexual Petra Vogel, an oboist with poisonous secrets, he sets in motion a complex psychological dance of guilt, music and love.

With remarkable intensity and physicality, Robert Ford delivers a pitch-perfect debut, brimming with intrigue and revelation, where passion flowers into desire on every page.