The Accompanist

By Nina Berberova

Book Overview

A spellbinding short novel set in post-revolutionary Russia about a young girl's jealousy. The fifth book of Nina Berberova to be published by New Directions, The Accompanist, written in 1936, proved to be a literary phenomenon in Europe where it was first published. A spellbinding, short novel set in post-revolutionary RussiaThe Accompanist portrays with extraordinary sensitivity the entangled relationships of three intriguing characters. Sonechka is a talented but shy young pianist hired by a beautiful soprano (Maria Nikolaevna) and her devoted, bourgeois husband. Maria is everything Sonechka is notglamorous and flamboyant. Her voice brings with it "something immortal and indisputable, something which gives reality to the human being's dream of having wings." Doomed to live in her mentor's shadow, the young girl secretly schemes to expose the singer's infidelities. But as she awaits her chance, the diva's husband takes matters into his own hands, bringing events to a surprising resolution. This intense and beautiful little novel was published in America almost fifty years after it was written; sadly out of print for a number of years, it is a wonderfully compelling and crucial addition to Nina Berberova's growing number of published fictional works.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811215342
• ISBN13: 9780811215343
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

flawless, compact, and disturbing novella

I'm disappointed that this book is out of print, as it is one of the most beautifully written and translated works I have ever read. It is a story of what people who do for other people or because of other people and the power of personality. It is also a love story, but of an unocnventional type. The narrator/protagonist is not someone that I would normally find interesting, but the author illuminates her life and gives us moments and glimpses of choices that the narrator makes wisely or unwisely and their consequences. Berberova's prose gives us insights into this character using metaphors that have an almost formal beauty and achieves that "aha" moment when the reader finally regards the item, action, or person in a never before seen way.