The Evening Sonata: A Novel

A renowned pianist returns to his native Iceland to face a family crisis that forces him to examine his own past—the loves that have shaped him, the joys he has known, and the triumphs that have slipped from his grasp.

Stefan is back in Iceland after decades working abroad—first as a promising young pianist, then, having abandoned his own career, as an advisor to those who have made it to the top. His estranged son, Petur, has summoned him: Stefan’s wife, Elsa, with whom Stefan has not lived for years, may be dying. He clashes with Petur, who attempts to gain control over his mother’s finances. At the same time, Stefan forms a bond with his eighteen-year-old granddaughter, Agnes, a piano student he’s meeting for the first time.

In 1949, a young Stefan watches his family prepare for the arrival of Ester and Felix, a Jewish couple who survived the Holocaust and whom Stefan’s parents befriended while living in Norway during the war. Stefan takes lessons with Ester and becomes obsessed with music and with his teacher, only to turn his back on her when she’s forced to distance herself from him. Stefan leaves for London and embarks on a career that blossoms beyond his wildest hopes, but just as he is about to break through, he learns there’s more to Ester’s story than he realized.

A deeply affecting novel written in Olaf Olafsson’s lilting and mesmerizing prose, The Evening Sonata is an exploration of how the regrets and secrets of our past—and the uncovering of those secrets—can change everything in an instant, leaving us with only the hope of peace and reconciliation.