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It is the summer of 1960 and fifteen-year-old Lila's life is about to change forever. Set free from the confines of school, her prison is the small unremarkable town of Burnhead, on the west coast of Scotland. She dreams of escape: from Burnhead, from the damp, from her mother's hysterics, her father's stolidity, and her parents' loveless marriage. Salvation arrives in the form of her beloved Uncle George, a music teacher from London who decides to stage an amateur production of Puccini's Turandot. Lila, in love for the first time, maps out a future for herself in which reality and fantasy fuse to form a dangerous mixture, threatening to destroy herself and all those around her. Beautifully written novel and intently observed, Morag Joss's new novel about conscience and consequence is an stunning, complex journey into the dark, claustrophobic heart of a family in crisis.… (more)
i found this book to be very well written and i think the author did a great job of evoking a creepy, sad and dysfunctional mood. usually that works for me, but i couldn't wait for the book to end. i think the only reason i finished it was to find out what horrible thing befell the family, b/c it was clear something did. there was such buildup, i suppose the ending couldn't help but be a disappointment. also, i found the style to be mostly introspective, and that became wearying after awhile. ( )
'Convent Garden was haunted last night. It was haunted by the gentle and immaculate ghost of Puccini...who died with the final bars of Turandot still imprisoned within his brain, who disappeared to solve an enigma more terrible and profound than any created by the Princess Turandot. We like to think that Puccini revisited the glimpses of the moon last night to observe the opera's performance in England, where his works are so universally cherished, to watch his tricksy spirits at their revels. We imagined him pleased with the magnificent production and the sensation it created.'
Daily Express, 8 June 1927
Dedication
Puccini's Ghosts is for Sue Chilcott 8 July 1963 - 4 September 2003
whose life, music and friendship inspired me in many ways although not creation any of characters or events in the story, which are entirely imagined.
First words
Now I'm here I begin to sense the trouble I'm in.
Quotations
Last words
There's no place in the world like Burnhead for chucking grit in your eye.
It is the summer of 1960 and fifteen-year-old Lila's life is about to change forever. Set free from the confines of school, her prison is the small unremarkable town of Burnhead, on the west coast of Scotland. She dreams of escape: from Burnhead, from the damp, from her mother's hysterics, her father's stolidity, and her parents' loveless marriage. Salvation arrives in the form of her beloved Uncle George, a music teacher from London who decides to stage an amateur production of Puccini's Turandot. Lila, in love for the first time, maps out a future for herself in which reality and fantasy fuse to form a dangerous mixture, threatening to destroy herself and all those around her. Beautifully written novel and intently observed, Morag Joss's new novel about conscience and consequence is an stunning, complex journey into the dark, claustrophobic heart of a family in crisis.
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