Under the Visible Life

Echlin%E2%80%99s 2009 novel The Disappeared was shortlisted for Canada%E2%80%99s prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize, and her talent is on full display in this lyrical, exciting story of two women and their lifelong relationships with music and with each other. Mahsa Weaver-Najibullah was born in Pakistan to an American father and an Afghan mother. Katherine Goodknow is the product of her Canadian mother%E2%80%99s affair with a Chinese migrant worker. Echlin paints difficult early lives for both girls in the 1940s%E2%80%94Mahsa%E2%80%99s parents are murdered, and Katherine%E2%80%99s mother is put in a reformatory for immorality%E2%80%94but both girls find solace in the piano, teaching themselves to play as children. Their worlds get closer when Mahsa is sent to Canada to attend university, and these two characters who share so much finally cross paths at a jazz club in New York City. Echlin discusses the sacrifices required from women, and the strength these particular women draw from music. Over and over, Mahsa and Katherine are saved by music, find love through music, and through music "feel the unfurling beauty of the world." Echlin%E2%80%99s excellent novel introduces two complex women who sometimes succeed and sometimes suffer, and whose stories are moving from start to finish. (Mar.)