PIANO MAN in 8
interludes
is about a real event. A young man throws himself into the sea off the coast of
Kent. He is rescued by people walking on the beach.All the labels have been cut
out of his clothes. He refuses to speak. He’s put into an institution. He draws
an image of a piano. They provide him with one. He plays, but remains silent.
Who is he? Does his rescue hide a suicide attempt? Is it a love story gone sour
or some existential quest for extinction? His description is circulated on the
web. People claim they know him. Piano man? I saw him busking in Barcelona…. I
met him in Berlin last year…. People think they know him, yet his real identity
remains a mystery.Who is he? What is his relationship to you and to me?
This
book by a Paris writer takesa basic real life story and weaves it into the real
life stories of 8 people, 8 interludes, 8 histories all seemingly unrelated,
but all the more powerful for their real place in time and space. A young musician
throws himself into the sea, a Buddhist monk falls in love with a village girl,
a shipwrecked woman who has lost everything is rescued by a giant turtle, a
shaman on a mystical journey calls whales from the ocean.Eight stories and
eight people who have two elements in common: the power of music and the
compelling force of the sea.
The author, who
simply goes by the name of <MARTI> is a writer and photographer. She has
contributed articles to the Washington
Post, New York Times, and Le Monde Guardian Weekly. She is a
Penguin Books author and a former professor in applied linguistics at the Sorbonnein
Paris. This is her first book of fiction, and is entirely based on real life
stories. It is short, easy to read, but somehow the stories stay with you and
reinforce our interconnectedness. Check it out and leave
your own impressions.
