Janice Galloway — Clara

Vintage 2003 Paperback, 432pp. A new novel based on the life of Robert Schumann's wife - from the award-winning Scottish author ofForeign Parts. Clara Schumann - celebrated 19th-century concert pianist and composer, editor and teacher - was also the wife of Robert Schumann, the mother of his eight children, and the woman who cared for him through crippling mental illnesses. While also an account of two remarkable and dramatic musical careers, this is a novel primarily about timeless, common things: the inescapable influences of childhood, creativity and marital life, communication and silence, how art is made and may erode or save the life that nourishes it. Luminously written, mordantly political and disturbingly honest, Clara is at heart an examination of the place of love in a life of increasing isolation and alienation. (ISBN: 9780099750512). Fair.