Fractured Soul

Awarded the Prix des libraires by Frances booksellers, a universal story about music and restoring ones faith in others amid the aftermath of tremendous loss. Tokyo, 1938. An amateur quartet, led by the compassionate Yu, gathers to practice. Suddenly, their rehearsal is brutally interrupted by military police. In the ensuing skirmish, Yus violin is smashed while his son, Rei, witnesses his fathers arrest. He will never see him again. Salvaging his fathers instrument, Rei escapes thanks to a mysterious lieutenant. Paris, 2003. Raised in France, Reinow Jacqueshas dedicated his life to the broken violins repair: studying music, becoming an apprentice, and, eventually, a luthier. However, despite his effort to rehabilitate the damage of years ago, he struggles to reconcile his past with the present. Yet, when a world-class violinist, connected to the lieutenant that helped him as a boy, appears, Jacques past is rekindled and he perseveres in a final bid to heal. Fractured Soul is a parable of what once was lost and what there stands to be gaineda story of immense beauty and ferocious courage. Translated from the French by Alison Anderson