Piano Music for Four Hands

Piano for Four Hands, a slim fiction by novelist and critic Roger Grenier, tells the story of aging, melancholy pianist Michel Mailhoc, who disdains worldly pleasures after a series of failed love affairs, and retreats to his family home in the Pyrenees. His only delight is his grand-niece, Emma, whom he trains to reap the accolades he scorned. Translated from the French by Alice Kaplan, a superb writer in her own right, the novel blossoms into delicate life, chronicling the illusions and disillusions of an existence devoted to art. (Apr.)