Lessons

When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines’s life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother’s protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. A chronicle of history and humanity through one man’s lifetime, it asks how much we can shape our destinies without harming others and what global events do to memories.

Across decades and continents, the novel explores lost opportunities and the ways in which love, music, literature, politics and friendship both illuminate and wound. It is a thoughtful, human portrait of a man trying to understand his place in a world shaped by trauma, power and chance.

Features

• Episch verhaal over oorlog, trauma en identiteit
• Volgt Roland Baines van jeugd tot volwassenheid
• Thema’s: muziek, literatuur, liefde en politiek
• Spanning van na-oorlogs Europa tot late jaren
• Humane kijk op geschiedenis via één leven
• 496 pagina’s, paperback uitgave UK