In this daring first novel of political， sexual， and artistic awakening， a young symphony conductor travels to Germany in the autumn of 1989， where he falls in love with a recent East German defector， and has a brutal encounter with the prewar conductor who becomes his great life teacher. Cooper Barrow has returned to the competitive fray of the orchestral world after eight years of exile-bringing his prodigious talent and insecurity into Frankfurt and Berlin just at the moment that the Berlin Wall falls. Barrow is to study under the cruel hand of a capricious maestro， Karlheinz Ziegler-a man who carries boundless shame from his days in a Nazi concentration camp， and who will force Barrow to define himself within a morally ambiguous world. But when Barrow encounters the beautiful and boldly sexual Petra Vogel， an oboist with poisonous secrets， he sets in motion a complex psychological dance of guilt， music， and love. With remarkable intensity and physicality， Robert Ford delivers a pitch-perfect debut， brimming with intrigue and revelation， where passion flowers into desire on every page.