Hammerklavier

Hammerklavier, the first novel by the internationally acclaimed playwright Yasmina Reza, became an instant bestseller on its publication in France. Narrated in the main by the author herself, Hammerklavier opens with a description of her dead father failing to play Beethoven on the self-same instrument and suffering admonishment from the maestro himself in a bizarre encounter in heaven. A series of forty-four autobiographical and fictional vignettes ensue in which the narrator's memories and fantasies of people - real and imagined - combine to stunning effect.