Partita is a literary fiction novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver. It is her highly anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed Demon Copperhead. The book is a profound meditation on the enduring influence of first love, the sacrifices of artistic ambition, and the ways beauty can both wound and heal.

Here’s my question: How does a person step in front of a train and leave everything right there?

Livia Bohusz misses her big brother, Cyrus. But since the day he took his own life, a day that changed everything, eleven-year-old Livia has also known she has no choice but to survive.

Her solace is music. A gifted pianist, Livia’s only escape is the quiet rapture it brings as she practices. The promise of a new life her talent might offer is intoxicating, a life away from the stifling silence that has enveloped the farm since Cyrus’ death.

When Livia starts college as a music major and scholarship prodigy, it feels as if a new life might begin. Immersing herself in her passions in a world where she excels, even as she struggles to fit in with more urbane classmates, she glimpses the possibilities of a life beyond the farm and her parents.

Then one springtime, the smell of reviving grass and crocuses and the sounds of songbirds fill the air, and Livia catches a glimpse of shirt sleeves rolled to the elbow, muscles you wouldn’t miss in the rear view: ‘Who is that man?’

It is a question Livia may come to wish she had never asked.

Partita is Livia’s story: It is a tale of thwarted ambitions, accumulated pain, of newfound hope, unexpected love, and endless resilience. It is as compelling and profound as the pieces Livia has mastered, and as heart-rending and en-grossing as the music that makes, breaks and mends her.