Synopsis:
Susannah put her career as a classical pianist on hold nearly sixteen years ago when her son was born, vowing to put her child’s needs first, no matter what. But now she has a chance to resume performing and, perhaps, vault into an elite tier of musicians, concertizing and recording.
Somewhere along the line, however, she lost the power and magic that used to distinguish her performances. She needs to elevate her playing back to that elusive level of excellence.
He husband calls her quest an obsession.
Just as Susannah begins preparing for the concert that could make her dream come true, her hand betrays her. She is diagnosed with a progressive hereditary disease that causes fingers to cramp and curl.
Suzannah was adopted as an infant and has never come to terms with her family history. She resents her birth mother for not putting her first. Now she learns that her genetic makeup, part of the legacy of a family that gave her little else, may derail her long-delayed dream.
As her now-or-never concert draws near, Susannah is catapulted back to the memories she’s never been able to purge. And faces choices she never thought she would have to make.
Susannah can no longer avoid answering questions about her life: Who am I? Where do I belong? What matters most to me?
When presented with a second chance to achieve the goal she thought she’d renounced forever, how steep a price is she willing to pay?
Review:
Author Barbara Linn Probst has an eclectic background and has been involved in multiple disciplines. She holds a PhD in clinical social work and penned a book for parents of “out-of-the-box” kids, When the Labels Don’t Fit. She says she has led a “zig-zag life,” working as a therapist, researcher, teacher, and advocate. She has traveled extensively, lived in numerous locales, including a former firehouse, former sauna, and former jail, and a cabin in the Redwoods without heat. She currently resides in a home on a dirt road in the Hudson Valley of New York. She considers herself a “serious amateur” pianist. Her first novel, Queen of the Owls, published in 2020, is the story of a woman’s search for wholeness, framed around the art and life of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. The Sound Between the Notes is her second novel.
As the story opens, Susannah Lewis is attending her most important audition in fifteen years, but has not shared with her husband that she has been presented with the opportunity to perform Schubert’s B-flat major sonata at a gala fundraiser for a women’s organization. But as she plays, the fifth finger on her right hand refuse to land properly on the piano keys and sound the top notes as Susannah desires. refuses to land properly on the top notes. Instead of the melody singing, her finger lands on the keys just a fraction too late and too heavily. Her piano teacher, Vera Evangelista, had urged her to audition after Susannah spent years devoted to Aaron, her husband, and only child, James, giving piano lessons, and performing in programs at local churches and schools. She hadn’t focused on what she gave up . . . until Vera’s call stirred a longing deep within her that she had worked hard to smother and forget. The timing is perfect because James is a teenage high school student, poised to be on his own soon.
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them. ~~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Susannah gets through the audition but is troubled by the quality of her performance. And the two blister-like bumps she discovers in the center of her palm. She is devastated when her physician diagnoses her with Dupuytren’s contracture, a progressive hereditary disease that, over time, causes fingers to become bent and unresponsive. Her doctor tells her there is nothing he can do for her . . . yet. Rather, as the connective tissue begins to thicken and form cords extending from the palm into the fingers, her condition will gradually worsen so she must wait and see how fast the disease progresses. Her condition has nothing to do with overusing her hands, practicing long hours. It is purely a genetic anomaly.
The discovery hurls Susannah into an existential crisis. She is determined to give the performance of her life at the gala because a flawless performance could open doors she thought were forever closed to her. The chance to perform with symphonies at varied venues, record, achieve critical acclaim, and share her artistic vision with audiences awaits if only she can make her hand do what she wills it to do. She has waited her whole life for this opportunity. But a specialist tells her the same thing her personal physician did.
And learning that she has inherited the condition stirs up old feelings in Susannah of unworthiness, abandonment, bewilderment. She was adopted by loving parents who wanted her and recognized her talent early on, providing her piano lessons with the best teacher. But she always felt that her biological parents discarded her, and wondered why.
Through flashbacks, Probst details Susannah’s quest to learn about her family of origin, her history, and, most importantly, why she was relinquished for adoption. Her journey is emotional and engrossing as, armed with her birth mother’s name, she travels to find her relatives and learn, among other things, if she inherited her musical talent from her mother. She waited until after she graduated from a prestigious music conservatory and moved to New York to attempt to launch her career. But chances to become a classical concert pianist are few and bills need to be paid, so Susannah worked accompanying ballet rehearsals, and performed at weddings, anniversaries, and retirement parties, threatening to destroy her touch at the keyboard in the process.
Probst’s compassion for and admiration of Susannah are evident on every page of the book. Her protagonist is endearing and sympathetic, even as she sojourns through a period of self-centeredness after years of ignoring her ambition in order to care for her family. As the date of the gala approaches, tension builds between Susannah and Aaron, in part because she becomes increasingly obsessed both with her performance and her anxiety about her hand. Aaron struggles to understand and support Susannah, who longs to “restore the glory” in her music not just for herself, but also for Aaron and James. She recalls the early days of their relationship when Aaron was enthralled with her playing, and as their relationship careens toward a breaking point, Susannah fears that her marriage could be one of the costs of resuming her career. Keeping secrets will only hasten the marriage’s demise, but Susannah is completely wrapped up in her exploration.
Probst surrounds Susannah with a fascinating group of supporting characters, including the family members she sought out, and her loving adoptive mother and father, who reveals long-held secrets that bring Susannah insight. Vera, the exacting teacher who shaped her gift, making Susannah into an exquisite musician, is mesmerizingly eccentric and opinionated.
The Sound Between the Notes is an entertaining, at times heartbreaking, and, ultimately, uplifting story about a woman who must come to terms with her past in order to claim the future she has dreamed about for many years. Probst keeps story’s the pace moving forward at a steady pace, cleverly interspersing chapters set “then” and “now” to keep readers engaged and eager to learn about Susannah’s past in order to understand how it informs and is impacting her current-day life. She deftly inserts suspense, accelerating the pace as events unfold frantically, bringing everything into question. Probst’s prose is rich, evocative, and lyrical as she describes Susannah’s inner turmoil. A musician herself, she includes musical references and analogies that readers will appreciate and relate to whether or not they are themselves musicians.
Probst relates that The Sound Between the Notes was originally going to be published before Queen of the Owls. However, she decided the book was not yet ready to be shared with readers because “I had to understand music more deeply before I could make Susannah, the protagonist, into the person she needed to be.” A year later, Probst had opened herself up to the piano “in a new way” so she could “find the part of every single character, no matter how minor, that’s worthy of love and respect,” noting that “there are no villains in The Sound Between the Notes.” Rather, the story is populated with well-meaning, earnest characters who are flawed, but doing the very best they can.
Her instincts led Probst to the right decision. The Sound Between the Notes is an astute and moving look at one woman’s quest to balance her passion for her artistic pursuits and the needs of her family, define who she is, what matters most to her, and how she can change the course of her future without losing everything that she values most. As Probst puts it, the story is about “the struggle to fulfill yourself while doing right by the people you love.”
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