Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation

Former child prodigy Gupta, recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” and, at age 19, one of the youngest violinists ever hired by an American orchestra, details his professional successes and personal struggles in this inspiring account. Gupta’s parents were Indian immigrants who supported their son’s musical ambitions as he grew up in the Hudson Valley in the 1990s—Gupta’s father made him his first violin out of a Cracker Jack box. They also smothered him with expectations, at one point insisting he abandon music for a career in medicine despite his significant promise. Meanwhile, Gupta details his struggles with emotional eating and details how the classical music circuit led him to burnout. The latter half of the memoir outlines how Gupta founded the nonprofit Street Symphony, which brings live music to people in Los Angeles shelters, clinics, and prisons. Anecdotes about Street Symphony, including a performance that was interrupted by a woman who told Gupta about the trials that led her to Skid Row, form the book’s most moving sections. With an open heart and sometimes brutal self-awareness, Gupta effectively illustrates how music “reaches the broken places within us and the broken places between us.” It’s a virtuoso performance. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary. (June)