The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

This is a fictionalised account of the life and times of Dmitry Shostakovich, brilliant 20th Century composer and survivor of Stalin's merciless regime.   The reader is party to Shostakovich's thoughts and fears as he struggles to maintain integrity and hope in the face of the persecution and the endless pressure to compromise which form the backdrop to totalitarian rule.

On the one hand, the protagonist is accepting of his fate:  “Destiny.  It was just a grand term for something you could do nothing about”.  On the other hand, he had a lively, daring mind which questioned his oppressor:  “Stalin loved everything that was exalted, and that was why he loved Beethoven.  It made his ears vomit when people told him this”.

Irony, which the character says is a trait that is born “in the gap between how we imagine, or suppose, or hope life will turn out, and the way it actually does” is a survival mechanism for him and a space in which he finds a way to be himself within a context of extreme fear and suppression.  It also provides some of the gentle humour throughout the novel.

The quality of Man Booker Prize winning Barnes' prose is supreme as his protagonist's existence provides a profoundly personal metaphor for the wider struggle. - £14.99; Publisher: Jonathan Cape

Review by Natasha Church  Bookstop, Tavistock    http://www.bookstoptavistock.co.uk