The Noise of Time A Novel [Paperback]

One of the Best Books of the Year:San Francisco Chronicle

1936: Dmitri Shostakovich, just thirty years old, reckons with the first of three conversations with power that will irrevocably shape his life. Stalin, hitherto a distant figure, has suddenly denounced the young composer’s latest opera. Certain he will be exiled to Siberia (or, more likely, shot dead on the spot), Shostakovich reflects on his predicament, his personal history, his parents, his daughter—all of those hanging in the balance of his fate. And though a stroke of luck prevents him from becoming yet another casualty of the Great Terror, he will twice more be swept up by the forces of despotism: coerced into praising the Soviet state at a cultural conference in New York in 1948, and finally bullied into joining the Party in 1960. All the while, he is compelled to constantly weigh the specter of power against the integrity of his music. An extraordinary portrait of a relentlessly fascinating man,The Noise of Timeis a stunning meditation on the meaning of art and its place in society.“Brilliant. . . . As elegantly constructed as a concerto.” —NPR 

“A condensed masterpiece that traces the lifelong battle of one man’s conscience, one man’s art, with the insupportable exigencies of totalitarianism.” —The Guardian(London)

“Brilliant. . . . Leads us to places only a handful of novelists have the skill and the courage to go.” —The Boston Globe
 
“Barnes’s storytelling is phenomenal; Shostakovich, as tragic and anxious as he is, is utterly fascinating. “ —The Christian Science Monitor

“A powerful portrait . . . Barnes does wonderful work on the key scenes. . . . The whole Kafka madhouse brought to life.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Exquisite.” —O, The Opralc³