Harcourt, Inc.
Available: 08/15/07
6 x 9 · 560 pages
978-0-15-101542-9 CDN $27.50 · cl

Buy the Book
Amazon.ca
Chapters.Indigo.ca
Independent Retailers

The Spanish Bow

Andromeda Romano-Lax

In a turn-of-the-century Catalan village, the bequest of a cello bow sets young Feliu Delargo on the unlikely path of becoming a musician. Anarchist Barcelona and the court of an embattled monarchy in Madrid teach him his first serious lessons in art, politics and passion. He meets piano prodigy Justo Al Cerraz, entering into a lifelong friendship and rivalry.

A haunting fugue of music, politics and passion, The Spanish Bow is a sweeping debut novel set in Spain from the end of the 19th century through the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The themes in this engaging historical fiction explore the fine line between heroism and self-interest, and the power of art to shape lives and nations. Loosely based on the lives of cellist Pablo Casals and pianist-composer Isaac Albeniz, who both faced difficult decisions in the politically chaotic Europe of the 1930s and 1940s, the novel also has appearances by Picasso, Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Mussolini, Franco and Hitler.

ANDROMEDA ROMANO-LAX (Anchorage) graduated high school at 15 and college at 17, plays the cello and has a master’s degree in marine biology. She is a journalist, travel writer and the author of Searching for Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez. The Spanish Bow is her first novel.