Music Against the Night
Product details
- ISBN 9780008647810
- Weight: 270g
- Dimensions: 153 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 13 Oct 2026
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Acclaimed Pulitzer-Prize finalist Yiyun Li, returns with a sweeping historical epic, following two extraordinary musicians on the rise.
In Dublin, as the eighteenth century nears its end, a young musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field is able to hear notes in the air, and his family aspires for him to become the next Mozart. His talent takes him far – to England, France, and then Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin.
Oceans away in Pondicherry, French India, Adelaide Percheron embarks on a startling rise of her own. Orphaned at a young age, she is raised by her enterprising grandmother. Without the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity – until she sets her sights on a pianoforte. Driven by her love of music, she engineers her exodus, escaping to Paris and later to Moscow, as Napoleon’s army sets out to conquer the continent.
Peopled by rival prodigies, irate tutors and begrudging guardians, Yiyun Li’s magisterial novel depicts two aspiring musicians – destined to be husband and wife – in pursuit of success. As John and Adelaide each try to chart a path between talent and genius, profit and passion, they must decide what, and even who, is worth sacrificing along the way.
Drawing inspiration from the past but finding entirely new forms, Music Against the Night is an exquisite, exhilarating epic from a writer at the height of her powers.
Yiyun Li is the author of twelve books of fiction and non-fiction. She is the recipient of many awards, including a Guardian First Book Award, the Sunday Times Short Story Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, an International Writer Award from the Royal Society of Literature, a MacArthur Fellowship and a Windham-Campbell Prize, and she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2026, Li was named as one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People of the Year. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
