The hills only come back the same: I dont mind.. . begins Kirsty Gunns The Big Music" a novel that takes us to a new understanding of how fiction can affect us. Presented as a collection of found papers appendices & notes " The Big Music" tells the story of John Sutherland of The Grey House who is dying & creating in the last days of his life a musical composition that will define it. Yet he has little idea of how his tune will echo or play out into the world
- & as the book moves inevitably through its themes of death & birth change & stasis the sound of his solitary story comes to merge & connect with those around him. In this work of fiction Kirsty Gunn has created something as real as music or as a dream. Not so much a novel as a place the reader comes to inhabit & to know " The Big Music" is a literary work of undeniable originality & power."