An equal music - Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth occupies a genre of his own. No two books of his have been alike, and yet each has borne the hallmark of its author: the 'unmistakable breath of life' as one critic described it, 'unassailable truthfulness' in the words of another. In An Equal Music, his first novel since A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth returns with a story both intricate and intimate, rich with music, art, humour and emotion.

On one level, it is a story about love, love of a woman lost and found and lost again. A chance sighting on a London bus, a letter which should never have been read, a pianist with a secret that touches the heart of her music: from a multiplicity of details, Vikram Seth once again creates the illusion of life. It is also a book about music and about how the love of music can run like a passionate theme through a life. Above all, it is a book to savour and re-read. By turns elegiac and witty, it introduces the reader to another facet of Vikram Seth's unique talent.