Brisbane

I am finding it hard to describe this novel. A character piece? A literary delight? A story of a life? The book is about a man who played a guitar and those surrounding him, but so much more than that. I was engrossed from the beginning.

I know nothing about music beyond that I like to listen to it and many times danced to it. The descriptions encompassing playing and singing were numerous and beyond my expertise, but just as the music of this man captivated all who listened, so was I captivated by the words.

No spoilers here. I am sorry the book ended. I wanted so much more. I was not ready to say goodbye.

Thank you NetGalley and Plough Publishing for the early read.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Imagine being a musician fir many years and finding out you are sick. His life is changing in ways he can't understand. He meets a young musician who has cancer. This book was very honest in its story telling. A must read.

I read an uncorrected proof copy of the ebook graciously provided me by NetGalley.

I have read Laurus and The Aviator by this author and enjoyed them both, although quite different in style. Brisbane continues that trend, being quite different from Laurus and Aviator.

Gleb Yanovsky is a famous guitarist at the height of his career. In the opening scene of the book, he is is in a limo taking him to the airport in Paris (CDG) bemoaning the failure of his hand to produce the tremolo he needed to play at the concert he had given at the Olympe. The hand is now performing perfectly. When he takes his seat on the plane, Gleb finds himself seated next to a writer called Nestor. Nestor will become ever present in the novel, after Gleb agrees to have Nestor write his biography.

The book moves forward in two periods of Gleb's live -- from when he was a child and from when his tremors started. So as Gleb's Parkinson's worsens in one thread, Gleb's life moves toward his musical career in the other.

In the current thread, Gleb's constant companion is his wife Katya. Another important character is Vera, the teenage prodigee of whom he and his wife become guardians. Gleb and Vera even perform together great acclaim. But Vera is ill. Gleb is quite rich in the current thread and has homes in Munich and St. Petersburg (purchased on a whim so Gleb and Katya can could celebrate New Year's Eve where they had shared their first New Year's Eve together).

In the earlier thread, we meet his family - father, mother, maternal grandmother, and fraternal grandfather, most importantly, - his friends, and his teachers. While Gleb is Ukrainian and lives in Kiev, he chooses to at university in St. Petersburg. Gleb considers Ukrainians to also be Russians. This causes him some difficulty at a couple of point. Much of this story line is told when Gleb is meeting with Nestor.

Just before the book ends, the author throws the reader a completely unexpected curve that calls much of into question. I plan to read the book in its final edition and look for clues that I might have missed in the proof copy I read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Plough Publishing for sharing the proof copy.

Though a little on the slow side, this book has sweetness. I enjoyed its poetic and lyrical narrative, the bounces between past and present, and the raw struggle Gleb had in facing his disease and accepting what it meant for his life going forward. The parts of the story including Vera were probably my favorite. How sweet that Gleb and Katya gave her a better life and loved her as their own! Life doesn’t ever really go as we plan for it to, and I think that’s a message portrayed gracefully in Brisbane.

Brisbane by Eugene Vodolazkin is a marvel. Timely in its setting and characters - Russian and Ukrainian - and steeped in music, childhood and illness, it reveals an author who can move deftly from the luminous and mystical Laurus to a layered and contemporary tale. It has been said that "Vodolazkin explores multifaceted questions of "Russianness" and concludes...that Russia cannot be rationally understood." But the reader can nibble around the edges and be entranced.

This is such a powerful story. A famous guitarist at the end of his performing life dealing with Parkinson's disease and losing his talent and the thing that defines him. A young pianist just starting out and facing a deadly cancer diagnosis. There are so many powerful and emotional parts of this book. Mr. Voldolazkin wove the past and present in a seamless way to tell a story that stays with you and lives on long after you've finished the last page..

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Gleb Yanovsky is a famous musician and guitarist. At the peak of his career, he loses his ability to play due to Parkinson’s disease. Understanding he won’t be able to play much longer, he tries to remember his life and to save its memory. His memories from the Soviet Ukraine and his granny. He remembers being a kid in Kiev. A memory of studying in Leningrad and living in a dorm. Another memory is meeting his first love. He realizes that he has seen almost places that he wanted to see except for Brisbane in Australia. Now that he is middle age, he realizes that his previous life is gone but most go forward and learn a new way to live his life. Gleb meets a 13 year old girl, Vera who is a pianist. Vera has been diagnosed with cancer. The two of them become very close as they immerse themselves together in music. Together they plan to do a final concert together

This novel is about music. It digs deep into the Ukrainian and Russian languages. The languages display the instinctive connection between their cultures. I feel that I cannot do justice to this very special book. It is a must read in our world now!

Hm, I think this was one of the cases where it was me and not the book. The writing/translation was good (I speak Russian but not well enough to read a novel in the language, would have love to, though). I just couldn't get invested in the characters. This time jumping between the two timelines got me confused; that may not even be the right word. My brain wasn't processing the jumps well for some reason. I may reread the book at some other time. Maybe it wasn't the right time for me and the book. But what I found fascinating was the timing of the book release since it nicely describes the difference between the Russian and the Ukrainian mentality/culture. While this is a work of fiction, I believe that if this is something that interests you, this book is a great start.

Thank you, Netgalley and the author/publisher, for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.

It took me a long time to read this book. Months and months and months. Brisbane was a frustrating read for me because so many portions of it are so, so beautiful, and so true, and yet other parts seemed entirely unnecessary to me.

The writer writes as it moves him to write. He doesn't care what I'm interested in. The story I wanted to read was the story of a great artist slowly losing his ability to express himself through his art. I had close to zero interest in the artist's childhood, or in the events that got him to this place of great reckoning in his life. I wanted to skip those parts, even if they are critical, in the writer's view, to my understanding of the artist in his moments of decline, loss, grief.

In the novel's soaring moments I wanted to linger and re-read. In its more pedestrian pages I got stuck and lost heart. It's like the way people reading Moby Dick lose heart at the blubber rendering parts. But the moments of greatness threaded through this story made it memorable and glorious.