Illuminations

Book excerpt: Isabel Merton is a renowned concert pianist whose playing is marked by rare intensity. At the height of her career, she feels increasingly torn between the expressive musical realm she inhabits, and the fragmented life she leads as an itinerant artist, with its frequent flights, anonymous hotels and arbitrary encounters. Then Isabel meets Anzor Islikhanov, a political exile from war-torn Chechnya driven by a powerful desire to help and avenge his people. As their paths cross in several cities, they are drawn to each other - until a menacing incident throws Isabel into crisis.