Yiyun Li is an acclaimed author of fiction and nonfiction. She is known for her precise prose and her unflinching attention to the complexities of human relationships.
Her new novel, Music Against the Night, is set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period shaped by revolution, war and sweeping changes across Europe.
Drawing on the lives of two historical musicians, Li takes us from Dublin to London and from French India to Paris and Moscow.
John Field, born in Dublin in 1782, is a musical prodigy whose family hopes he’ll become the next Mozart. He grows up to be a celebrated pianist and composer, pioneering the nocturne — a musical form later made famous by Chopin.
Meanwhile, Adelaide Percheron, an orphan raised in Pondicherry, French India, discovers her own passion for music and pursues a life beyond the limited choices available to her.
Their stories explore talent and ambition, the sacrifices demanded by art, and the ways history determines whose achievements endure.
Music Against the Night is the first in Yiyun Li's Nocturne Trilogy.
Learn more about Yiyun Li here.
