Music Against The Night by Yiyun Li: A dense and complex novel worth taking time over

Music Against The Night

Author: Yiyun Li

ISBN-13: 978-0008647827

Publisher: 4th Estate

Guideline Price: £14.99; 338pp

“Sweeping” is overused to describe historical fiction, yet by the time you finish Music Against the Night, the word won’t seem expansive enough. Opening in Smolensk, Russa, in February 1837 and February 1860, the novel takes in Pondicherry at the end of the 18th and start of the 19th centuries, in addition to Paris, Bath, London, Cazaubon (and more).

Yiyun Li begins with John Field’s death, which “would never be natural – few musicians would have that luxury”. His wife, Adelaide, is not with him, because she was banished from his life decades earlier. From that sturdy opening, Li slips back in time to Dublin in July 1782, as Robert and Grace Field welcome their second-born son, John, “who would become their first child”.

The previous summer, another John had died at two days old. From a young age, the music in John’s blood is obvious to them all, for he hears notes in the air. His parents are determined he will be the next Mozart, and he does become a famous pianist, composing the glorious, enchanting melodies he calls nocturnes.

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In Pondicherry in French India in 1796, a young orphan called Adelaide Percheron commences an unusual journey of her own. Raised by her grandmother, and without money to fall back on, it first appears as though Adelaide will have to marry for security. She resents this, angry that “a girl’s responsibility was to turn out like all the others, so that together they could uphold the standard of attractive mediocrity”. She sets her sights on music, determined to make the most out of her “lesser life as a woman”, and engineers an escape to Paris and from there to Moscow.

John wants a woman to idolise him, Adelaide wants to be a virtuoso and his equal. The intertwined path of two such ambitious individuals becomes complicated, and John and Adelaide must decide what, and whom, they will sacrifice in pursuit of their passions as well as profit. This complex novel is a dense read, and worth taking time over, for Li is at her most fascinating when exploring what talent really means, and how to cope with the responsibility it carries with it.

Henrietta McKervey’s latest novel is The Woman in the Water