A century after his death Gustav Mahler is the most important composer of modern times. Displacing Beethoven as a box-office draw heard in Hollywood films & on state occasions his music inspires particular devotion. Some believe it helps heal emotional wounds others find intellectual fascination in its contradictory meanings & many feel that the music captures the yearnings & anxieties of our post-industrial society. In this highly original account of the composers life & work Norman Lebrecht explores the Mahler Effect asking why Mahlers music has become the soundtrack to our twenty-first-century lives.