The Pianist’s Counterpoint: Playing Solo

From the back cover

Five years after their breakup, Nora works a fish stall in the local market, scaling and gutting the catch with practiced hands. Julian Vance, once her fellow student under the same classical music instructor, appears at her counter in a tailored suit to buy fish for his pregnant wife, Clara Sterling. He offers her money, a business card, and old concern, but she refuses each gesture and calls him Mr. Vance, insisting there is no longer any "us."

Back in her small rented apartment, Nora opens a dusty box signed by Julian and, prompted by Stella, an apprentice from the salon downstairs, recounts the past. He was the prodigy who swore to stand on the grandest stages with her; Clara, daughter of a major arts sponsor, pursued him until he chose her connections over their duet, ending things with a breakup text. Nora has not touched a piano since.

Yet the meeting leaves its mark: Julian has rearranged the piece they composed together and played it in Vienna. Whether Nora can reclaim the music she abandoned remains open.