The Goldberg Variations

Nancy Huston's The Goldberg Variations, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Translation, echoes Bach's Variations in its structure and rhythms, and ultimately, its irony. "Suppose you invite thirty people to your home, people whom you love or have loved, to listen to you perform Bach's Goldberg Variations. And say that this concert unfolds like a midsummer night's dream, that is, you, Liliane, succeed in vibrating thirty people like so many variations, each at a different tune-you must oscillate between memory and speculation; you must, above all, master your fears-maybe then, all these fragments of music would dance into the same stream, and that you would call The Goldberg Variations, a novel." -Nancy Huston