What is not to love about this book, it emphasises the magic and emotional impact of music and how you can pick yourself up from your darkest moments and start again.
Grace Atherton is in a long term relationship with an emotionally unavailable man and is happy to let her life revolve around him and his other commitments, her other great love is her musical instruments that she lovingly restores but does not have the confidence to play in front of anyone any longer.
This book is a brilliant story of self discovery, how when you think that life has nothing else left to offer you that there is always a reason to pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and start again. A story that oozes compassion, the emotional impact of music and how you can find the inner strength and self belief to be happy again.
I read this emotional story over a few days and absolutely fell in love with Grace and her wonderful friends Mr Williams and Nadia. The descriptions were amazing and it left you feeling the journey of each musical instrument and the pieces of music that they were playing. This was my first read by Antsey Harris but certainly won’t be my last as it was such a beautiful story.
Book Blurb
The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton is the story of a woman who has her heart broken, but then puts it back together again in the most uplifting and exquisite way.
Between the simple melody of running her violin shop and the full-blown orchestra of her romantic interludes in Paris with David, her devoted partner of eight years, Grace Atherton has always set her life to music.
Her world revolves entirely around David, for Grace’s own secrets have kept everyone else at bay. Until, suddenly and shockingly, one act tips Grace’s life upside down, and the music seems to stop.
It takes a vivacious old man and a straight-talking teenager to kickstart a new chapter for Grace. In the process, she learns that she is not as alone in the world as she had once thought, that no mistake is insurmountable, and that the quiet moments in life can be something to shout about …
Available to purchase on Amazon
About the Author
Anstey Harris is based by the seaside in south-east England where she lives with her violinmaker husband and two dogs. She teaches creative writing in the community, local schools, and as an associate lecturer for Christchurch University in Canterbury.
Anstey writes about the things that make people tick, the things that bind us and the things that can rip us apart. In 2015, she won the H G Wells Short Story Prize for her story, Ruby. In novels, Anstey tries to celebrate uplifting ideas and prove that life is good and that happiness is available to everyone once we work out where to look (usually inside ourselves). Her short stories tend not to end quite so well…
Things that interest Anstey include her children and granddaughter, green issues and conservation, adoption and adoption reunion (she is an adopted child, born in an unmarried mothers’ home in Liverpool in 1965), stepfamilies, dogs, and food. Always food. She would love to be on Masterchef but would never recover from the humiliation if she got sent home in the first round.
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