
The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award Winner of the South Bank Sky Arts Award Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize What is the difference between friendship & love? Gustav grows up in a small town in Switzerland where the horrors of the Second World War seem a distant echo But Gustav's father has mysteriously died & his adored mother Emilie is strangely cold & indifferent to him Gustav's life is a lonely one until he meets Anton An intense lifelong friendship develops but Anton fails to understand how deeply & irrevocably his life & Gustav's are entwined until it is almost too late This is a perfect novel' Observer' The Gustav Sonata is beautifully rendered & magnificent in its scope It glows with mastery' Ian Mc Ewan