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'A gripping and beautifully written novel that brings to mind Notes on a Scandal and Elizabeth is Missing.
'Alice Haywood is born on an orange farm in country New South Wales. She begins playing the piano when she is three, taught by her English mother who is unhappy in Australia and in a desolate, violent marriage. When Alice is seven, her mother, desperate for her daughter to leave if she can't, sends her to boarding school in the bleak north of England, and there Alice stays for the next ten years. Then she's offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. That year, on a summer school in Oxford, she meets Edward, an economics professor, who sweeps her off her feet.
'But underneath his suave demeanor, Edward is a damaged man. He traps her into marriage and Alice is stuck, oppressed by his cruelty, in the Oxford home he has bought for her. After a disastrous recital of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto, she stops playing and her dreams of becoming a concert pianist evaporate.
'Alice and Edward have a son, Richard, whom she adores. He too is a talented musician. But as Richard grows up he becomes more and more distant, and ultimately Alice can't find it in herself to carry on. Then she starts to hear the most beautiful music coming from the walls of her house.
'Inspiring and unusual, this novel's love story is that of a woman who must embrace life again if she is to survive. With a wonderful cast led by Alice, the novel explores the dark terrain of violence and the transformative powers of music, and love.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: For C. J. James and Doreen Oldfield
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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More Than ‘Rotten Apples’ : Australian Literature and the Possibility of Redemption for Men Who Abuse
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;'Popular analyses of gendered violence focus on the need for an individually-focussed approach to the problem which calls for greater responsibility and accountability for individual men. Men who use violence are often viewed as bad apples; or as deviant to the moral codes which are necessary in a moral society. But contemporary Australian authors examine the socio-cultural, political and economic structures that promulgate inequality according to gender, class, age and culture. This inequality manifests in the gendered violence which Christos Tsiolkas, Richard Flanagan, Charlotte Wood, Zoe Morrison and Sofie Laguna portray as a product of neo-liberalism. The men within their fiction are affected by disconnection and individualism within our neo-liberal, patriarchal society. The male protagonists are subjects of, as well as producers of dominant practices of masculinity. Equally, their female characters are not merely passive victims of gendered power as they protest against and challenge the structures that support inequality. Through post-structural analyses which leaves room for contradiction and nuance within characters, these contemporary Australian authors are able to maintain hope for difference and redemption in the lives of men who use violence and abuse, and the women and children who are affected. They consciously avoid separating people in to categories of good or evil, or just and unjust, given that these dichotomies are central to the patriarchal and capitalistic systems of individuality and competition which they critique.' (Publication abstract)
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What I’m Reading
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017; -
Review : 'Music and Freedom' by Zoë Morrison
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 383 2016; (p. 48)
— Review of Music and Freedom 2016 single work novel -
Zoe Morrison
Linda Morris
(interviewer),
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 30-31 July 2016; (p. 18) -
Rocky Roads from Sorrow to Hope
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 July 2016; (p. 36)
— Review of Music and Freedom 2016 single work novel ; The Paper House 2016 single work novel
-
Rocky Roads from Sorrow to Hope
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 July 2016; (p. 36)
— Review of Music and Freedom 2016 single work novel ; The Paper House 2016 single work novel -
Review : 'Music and Freedom' by Zoë Morrison
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 383 2016; (p. 48)
— Review of Music and Freedom 2016 single work novel -
The Minor and Major Keys of a Life
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 18) The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 24)
— Review of Music and Freedom 2016 single work novel -
History Is A Many-Sided Thing
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2016;
— Review of Wild Island 2016 single work novel ; Skylarking 2016 single work novel ; Music and Freedom 2016 single work novel -
Zoe Morrison
Linda Morris
(interviewer),
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 30-31 July 2016; (p. 18) -
Lifetimes of Consequences
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: Underline , December no. 1 2016; (p. 8-10) 'Musician, Rhodes Scholar, social justice advocate and author Zoe Morrison wrapped a lifetime of experiences into her debut novel Music and Freedom. Ane her ever-persistent invention - a character named Alice Haywood - gave Morrison a mouthpiece for those living on the margins.' -
More Than ‘Rotten Apples’ : Australian Literature and the Possibility of Redemption for Men Who Abuse
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;'Popular analyses of gendered violence focus on the need for an individually-focussed approach to the problem which calls for greater responsibility and accountability for individual men. Men who use violence are often viewed as bad apples; or as deviant to the moral codes which are necessary in a moral society. But contemporary Australian authors examine the socio-cultural, political and economic structures that promulgate inequality according to gender, class, age and culture. This inequality manifests in the gendered violence which Christos Tsiolkas, Richard Flanagan, Charlotte Wood, Zoe Morrison and Sofie Laguna portray as a product of neo-liberalism. The men within their fiction are affected by disconnection and individualism within our neo-liberal, patriarchal society. The male protagonists are subjects of, as well as producers of dominant practices of masculinity. Equally, their female characters are not merely passive victims of gendered power as they protest against and challenge the structures that support inequality. Through post-structural analyses which leaves room for contradiction and nuance within characters, these contemporary Australian authors are able to maintain hope for difference and redemption in the lives of men who use violence and abuse, and the women and children who are affected. They consciously avoid separating people in to categories of good or evil, or just and unjust, given that these dichotomies are central to the patriarchal and capitalistic systems of individuality and competition which they critique.' (Publication abstract)
-
What I’m Reading
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Awards
- 2017 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2017 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — The Matt Richell Award for New Writer
- 2017 shortlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2017 longlisted Indie Awards — Debut Fiction
- 2016 winner Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
- New South Wales,
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Oxford,
Oxfordshire,
cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,