The Noise of Time

A slim, stunning masterpiece depicting the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich—Julian Barnes's first novel since his Booker Prize-winning The Sense of an Ending.

1936: Shostakovich, just thirty, fears for his livelihood and his life. Stalin, hitherto a distant figure, has taken a sudden interest in his work and denounced his latest opera. Now, certain he will be exiled to Siberia (or, more likely, shot dead on the spot), he reflects on his predicament, his personal history, his parents, various women and wives, his daughter—all of those hanging in the balance of his fate. And though a stroke of luck prevents him from becoming yet another casualty of the Great Terror, for years to come he will be held fast under the thumb… Keep Reading