By Roger Childs

This audaciously unpredictable tale of passion and pianos in 1880s France and Russia is worthy of adulation. –The Guardian

A great writer

Sometimes you read a novel that has a profound effect on you and keeps you thinking long after you’ve turned the final page. Love is Blind, subtitled The Rapture of Brodie Moncur, by William Boyd is such a book. He has written more than a dozen historical novels and they are all characterized by well researched settings, credible characters and plots with plenty of twists and turns.

Here are six more of his books I would highly recommend:

  • A Good Man in Africa
  • Waiting for Sunrise 
  • Ordinary Thunderstorms. 
  • Restless
  • Waiting for Sunrise 
  • Any Human Heart

One of his best

Love is Blind is written on three levels: firstly it is a love story; secondly it is a late 19th– early 20th century travelogue, and thirdly it is a mystery based around a manhunt.

Brodie Moncur is a young Scotsman living in Edinburgh where he works as a tuner for Ainsley Channon who manufactures pianos and sells them in Britain and Europe. Brodie is an expert at his trade and when Ainsley asks him to work at the Paris shop run by his son Calder, Brodie jumps at the opportunity. He is keen to escape his tyrannical widower father, who is a minister, and keeps his two other sons and six daughters under strict control.

Brodie does well in Paris and boosts piano sales and demand for tuning services. But it turns out that Calder is fiddling the books and siphoning off much of the company’s profit.  Many leading pianists are keen to take tuners on concert tours to ensure that their piano is always in top shape, and John Killbarron – The Irish Liszt – wants the Scotsman to accompany him on his visits to the capitals of Europe. 

Falling in love and a duel

Meeting up with Killbarron and his minder, brother Malachi, leads him to the beautiful young Russian singer Lika Blum. For Brodie it is love at first sight and a life-long commitment. Unfortunately, Lika is the pianist’s mistress, so they have to be incredibly careful about meeting as their relationship gradually unfolds. Eventually the four of them end up in St Petersburg where a wealthy Russian widow employs Killbarron full time. 

Inevitably Brodie and Lika are found out, and the pianist challenges the Scotsman to a duel. But instead of firing in the air so that everyone can go home safely, Killbarron wounds Brodie and the furious tuner shoots him dead. The two lovers flee to France, but Malachi seeking revenge, pursues them. Eventually in Paris, Lika, tired of running, confesses that she is actually married to Malachi, and decides it would be best to return to him. Brodie is shattered but has to keep moving as Malachi is still after him. He lives for short periods in various cities in Europe – Graz, Geneva, Trieste – and wherever he resides he keeps writing to his beloved Lika pledging his loyalty. He finally ends up in the Andaman Islands working for American anthropologist Page Paget.

An absorbing novel

This is a book that never misses a beat. Love is Blind is full of delights and surprises, and has plenty of twists and turns, including an ending which no reader would pick. There is fascinating detail on various topics — piano tuning of course, and a medical issue which was common at the time — consumption, better known as tuberculosis. 

Brodie and Lika, are finely drawn protagonists, and the other characters are all entirely credible as is the European fin de siècle setting.

As you will have gathered, I highly recommend this book which is available at the Paraparaumu Library.