Sonata in Wax

"Sonata in Wax is a terrific novel—immersive, compelling, smart, the story propelled by a cast of complex, full-bodied characters and the author’s absolute mastery of the musical worlds he conjures...I’m knocked flat with admiration for this splendid novel.”

—Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author of Devil Makes Three

"A deeply realized tale of the power of music and the anonymity of history."

— Kirkus Reviews

From award-winning author Edward Hamlin comes an immersive, time-hopping musical mystery that intertwines the stories of Elisabeth Garnier, a young Frenchwoman living in World War I Boston, and Ben Weil, an acclaimed music producer whose life is consumed by a lie—and by a bizarre, breathtaking sonata that could destroy him if he can’t uncover its composer’s identity in time.

As the Great War rages, a French pianist sits down to play an arrestingly original sonata—a piece so strange and inspired that it could change the course of classical music. The moment is captured on wax cylinders, the recording medium of the day. But in the tumult of war the fragile cylinders vanish, and with them the identity of the brilliant composer and the virtuoso pianist.

A century later, five timeworn wax cylinders land on the desk of Ben Weil, a revered classical music producer. From the moment he first plays them in his Chicago studio, Ben knows he’s in the presence of genius. The dazzling piece is years ahead of its time, more Coltrane than Debussy—how could it be?

Brought low by a painful divorce, Ben throws himself into unlocking the sonata’s mysteries. But when a renowned pianist stumbles upon the work and takes credit for unearthing it, he’s swept into a lie that could shatter his reputation and his private life at a stroke. Somehow Ben must find a way to tell the truth—a dangerous quest that will lead him not only to the sonata’s surprising origins, but to his own.