THE CHANGING OF KEYS
With his father dead, a gifted, fourteen-year-old pianist finds himself sent away from his Caribbean home against his will, to study classical music in the U.S. with a family friend he’s never met. His first angry, frightened step away from the controlling mother he’s never been able to reach becomes a sharp break with her expectations: he leaps into the dramatic and cutthroat world of opera. In this high-stakes milieu, his fierce desire to be a star fires both his brilliance and the dark distrust of women and of love that is the legacy of his childhood, a legacy that threatens his career,
With his father dead, a gifted, fourteen-year-old pianist finds himself sent away from his Caribbean home against his will, to study classical music in the U.S. with a family friend he’s never met. His first angry, frightened step away from the controlling mother he’s never been able to reach becomes a sharp break with her expectations: he leaps into the dramatic and cutthroat world of opera. In this high-stakes milieu, his fierce desire to be a star fires both his brilliance and the dark distrust of women and of love that is the legacy of his childhood, a legacy that threatens his career, his impulsive marriage, and the young daughter he never wanted.
- Regal House Publishing
- Paperback
- September 2024
- 244 Pages
- 9781646035175
Buy the Book
$18.95
About Carolyn Jack
Carolyn Jack has won the Meringoff Prize for Fiction and The Westchester Review’s Flash Fiction Contest. Her literary work has appeared in such periodicals as Literary Matters, the Blue Mountain Review, and Pen + Brush in Print. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and an award-winning arts journalist, she holds both an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and an MA in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Praise
“How she can write! Here are grandeur and piercing moral insight. A very promising start to what will be a great career.” —Benjamin Taylor, author of Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather and Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth
“Carolyn Jack delivers a powerful story of family and the trauma of familial dysfunction that can span generations. In beautifully rendered prose, she reminds us of the essential role the arts and creative expression play in making us fully human. This tale of love, loss, and human frailty will stay with you long after the last page.” —John Grogan, international bestselling author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog and the memoir The Longest Trip Home
“A lush, elegant aria of a novel, The Changing of Keys will transport—with gorgeous, tender lyricism—the reader into the mind of a musical prodigy in search of meaning…. David Copperfield meets Norwegian Wood, this novel will break your heart only to mend it in startling and marvelous ways.” —Naheed Phiroze Patel, author of A Mirror Made of Rain
“Remarkable… I could hardly put it down. It’s so infused with feeling, atmosphere, and texture, and the innovative way of transitioning from father to daughter is as surreal as it is captivating. I am completely gobsmacked by the poetry and pertinent detail of the writing.” —Donald Rosenberg, author of The Cleveland Orchestra Story: Second to None
“A wickedly smart and thoroughly engaging writer, Jack writes with verve. The enthusiasm she has for exploring the obsessions and desires that rule the lives of her characters is contagious.” —Elissa Schappell, co-founder of Tin House literary magazine and author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls