NCW Libraries

A once accomplished concert pianist, Richard now has ALS. As he becomes increasingly paralyzed and is no longer able to live on his own, Karina becomes his reluctant caretaker. As Richard's muscles, voice, and breath fade, both he and Karina try to reconcile their past before it's too late. This is a masterful exploration of redemption and what it means to find peace inside of forgiveness.--Amazon.com

"A small town pianist ponders a new life away from her embarassing mother when a beautiful girl shows up and changes everything"--

"Musician Natalie Curtis is broken by strict training and a lost love. After encountering Native American music, she is determined to save these ancient songs which are being silenced by the government. In doing so, Natalie steps inside the space between the notes to discover something she'd forgotten-music powerful enough to heal. Based on a true story"--

Devoting herself to her musical career six months after the events of Wintersong, Liesl struggles with her brother's cold withdrawal and her own inability to forget the austere young man who inspired her efforts.

A story of friendship, first love, and an impossible choice between integrity and duty, family and friends, all while fighting for a dream. Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is a historical YA novel in verse that centers around a young pianist in East Germany trying to make sense of love, duty, and the pursuit of dreams during the unsettled months of protest that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. Written in stunning lyrical verse,...

Young Marvin loves music and playing the piano but does not like practicing pieces by people named Ludwig or Wolfgang, until he receives valuable advice from his father on the day of a big audition.

"When the head of the women's camp appoints Alma as the conductor of the orchestra, performing for prisoners trudging to work as well as the highest-ranking Nazis, Alma refuses: 'they can kill me but they won't make me play'. Yet she soon realizes the power this position offers: she can provide starving girls with extra rations and save many from the clutches of death. This is how Alma meets Miklos, a talented pianist. Surrounded by despair, they...

"When a young boy begins to play on his family's piano, reveling in the fun of plunking the keys, his father signs him up for lessons so that he can learn to play properly. With his father's encouragement, Raj learns notes, then scales, then songs, and finally classical pieces that his father can recognize and be proud of. But the more Raj practices and the more skilled he becomes, the less he enjoys playing, until he grows up and stops playing altogether....

"Exacting yet unpredictable, pithy yet complex, Coetzee's The Pole tells the story of Wittold Walccyzkiecz, a vigorous, extravagantly white-haired pianist and interpreter of Chopin who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his concert in Barcelona. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by Wittold and his "gleaming dentures," she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept...

From the author of the acclaimed GLORY BE, a novel that celebrates baseball, fast piano, and small-town living in the wake of the Vietnam War. When Theo gets off a bus in Destiny, Florida, he's left behind the only life he's ever known. Now he's got, to live with Uncle Raymond, a Vietnam War vet and a loner who wants nothing to do with this long-lost nephew. Thank goodness for Miss Sister Grandersole's Boarding House and Dance School. The piano that...