FRACTURED SOUL

Awarded the Prix des libraires by France’s booksellers a universal story about music and restoring one’s faith in others amid the aftermath of tremendous loss.Tokyo 1938. An amateur quartet led by the compassionate Yu gathers to practice. Suddenly their rehearsal is brutally interrupted by military police. In the ensuing skirmish Yu’s violin is smashed while his son Rei witnesses his father’s arrest. He will never see him again. Salvaging his father’s instrument Rei escapes thanks to a mysterious lieutenant.Paris 2003. Raised in France Rei–now Jacques–has dedicated his life to the broken violin’s repair: studying music becoming an apprentice and eventually a luthier. However despite his effort to rehabilitate the damage of years ago he struggles to reconcile his past with the present.Yet when a world-class violinist connected to the lieutenant that helped him as a boy appears Jacques’ past is rekindled and he perseveres in a final bid to heal. Fractured Soul is a parable of what once was lost and what there stands to be gained–a story of immense beauty and ferocious courage.Translated from the French by Alison Anderson