A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO FINANCIAL TIMES GUARDIAN INDEPENDENT TIME MAGAZINELevys lyrical pitchperfect prose is an exploration of our reasons for living the forces that drive us and the inner music that controls the rhythms of our dance through life and love IndependentThe mesmerising new novel from the twice Bookershortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming HomeAt the height of her career concert pianist Elsa M Anderson former child prodigy now in her thirties walks off the stage in Vienna midperformanceNow she is in Athens watching as another young woman a stranger but uncannily familiar almost her double purchases a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market Elsa wants the horses too but there are no more for sale She drifts to the ferry port on the run from her talent and her historySo begins a journey across Europe shadowed by the elusive woman who bought the dancing horsesA dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis August Blue uncovers the ways in which we seek to lose an old story find ourselves in others and create ourselves anewDeborah Levy writes like a dream and I mean that quite literally Stuart Kelly The ScotsmanA virtuosic novel of identity and breakdown it flickers constantly between comedy and darkness You know youll read August Blue again M John Harrison GuardianSunday Times bestseller May 2023
