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At the center of Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy’s cutting novel is Elsa M. Anderson, a 30-something British virtuoso whose piano performance in Vienna comes to a surprising halt when she walks off the stage and into chaos of her own creation. Elsa becomes fixated on a stranger who looks exactly like her—and she starts seeing the mysterious woman all over Europe. In detailing her protagonist’s journey, Levy crafts a surreal and moving narrative about identity and art. Don’t let the melancholy tone of the story fool you—at its core, August Blue is a revealing look at the power of self-discovery. —Annabel Gutterman
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