Us Conductors

'A wonderful book ... His story is so extraordinary and so beautifully and deftly told ... heartbreaking' Observer, Books of the Year 'The grace of Michaelss style makes these times and places seem entirely new. He succeeds at one of the hardest things a writer can do: he makes music seem to sing from the pages of a novel' Giller Prize Jury Locked in a cabin, on a ship bound for Leningrad, Lev Termen types a letter to Clara, his one true love. He recalls his early years as a scientist, inventing the musical theremin and other electric marvels, and the Kremlins dream that these creations could help infiltrate capitalism itself. Instead, Manhattan infiltrated Termen he fell in love with the citys jazz clubs and speakeasies, and with Clara, a beautiful young violinist. When Termens spy games fall apart, he returns to find the Motherland not quite as he left it. Exiled to a Siberian gulag, with nothing but his wits to keep him alive, Termen is drawn ever deeper into the labyrinth of Stalins Russia. Only his feelings for Clara, passing through the ether like the theremins song, seem to show a way out.