CRESCENDO
A piano virtuoso and his twin sister become rivals for a new spotlight—the adoration of a mysterious French patron—during the hot Parisian summer of 1957.
Twins Natasha and Max Kitson have lived their lives on the road, together building Max’s career as a world-renowned pianist, famous for bringing even the most stalwart audience members to tears. But when, at age 20, the former prodigy begins making uncharacteristic mistakes, he abruptly cancels his remaining concerts and moves himself and his sister into the home of an enigmatic French patron, never realizing that Henri has been his sister’s lover.
A piano virtuoso and his twin sister become rivals for a new spotlight—the adoration of a mysterious French patron—during the hot Parisian summer of 1957.
Twins Natasha and Max Kitson have lived their lives on the road, together building Max’s career as a world-renowned pianist, famous for bringing even the most stalwart audience members to tears. But when, at age 20, the former prodigy begins making uncharacteristic mistakes, he abruptly cancels his remaining concerts and moves himself and his sister into the home of an enigmatic French patron, never realizing that Henri has been his sister’s lover.
In Paris, over the course of one summer, Natasha’s long-simmering resentments and Max’s deep insecurities drive the siblings apart as each vie for Henri’s attentions. But neither twin can have their host entirely to themselves, because while, during the day, Henri woos Natasha with lavish gifts and trips to the ballet, it’s Max’s music that draws Henri from bed each night.
One part delicious family drama, and one part twisted love triangle, Crescendo is an altogether un-put-downable escape to the concert halls, ballet theaters, and bedrooms of 1950s France.
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Hardcover
- June 2026
- 320 Pages
- 9781639735556
Buy the Book
$28.99
About Jane Healey
Jane Healey has a BA (Hons) from Warwick University, an MSc in Literature & Modernity from Edinburgh University, and studied on the MFA Fiction course at CUNY Brooklyn College. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award, the Bristol Prize, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in London, and previously wrote Historical Debut Novel Award winner The Animals at Lockwood Manor and The Ophelia Girls.
Praise
“Healey depicts the decadence of late 1950s Paris in cinematic prose . . . Recommend to fans of evocative, atmospheric historical fiction like Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep.” —Booklist
“A bittersweet tale of a love triangle in 1950s Paris . . . Those who enjoy a romance with a caustic edge will take to this searing work.” —Publishers Weekly
“The psychologically gripping story of two siblings, the music that moves them, and the love they so desperately seek. The writing is sexy and layered—I fell under Healey’s spell from the very first chapter until its moving and bittersweet end.” —Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics, The House Girl, and Community Board
“A riveting study in pressure—artistic, romantic, and familial—set within the rarefied world of 1950s French concert halls and ballet.” —Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept
“Builds, slowly, grippingly, leaving you breathless with every new revelation, heart beating in your ears until the explosive ending. Then, on the final page, it offers a beautiful note of hope. Healey is an artist.” —Carinn Jade, author of Astrology House
“A delicious unravelling of complicated siblings in the most sumptuous of settings, I devoured it.” —Anna Bailey, internationally bestselling author of Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days
“An enormous pleasure to read—a thrilling, claustrophobic, passionate study of ambition, neurosis and desire that really sucked me in.” —Bridget Collins, internationally bestselling author of The Binding