Disturbance of the Inner Ear Hardcover - 2002

From the publisher

After the last person who knew of her luminous childhood dies, Isabel Masurovsky finds herself stranded in Italy. The extreme survival prescriptions of her father, a world-renowned pianist who survived the Czech concentration camp Theresienstadt by playing for his captors, ring in her ear, trapping her in the past. Though she has not performed in years, she takes a job teaching the troubled son of a miser millionaire who is hiding a legendary cello that was confiscated by the Nazis and has never resurfaced. Giulio is a cagey surgical resident who also works as a gigolo. A compulsive performer and liar, he turns out to be more genuine than anyone Isabel has ever known. Slowly, relentlessly, he provokes, coaxes, and seduces her into the present, helping her see that she must live not in her fathers time but in her own. As their relationship intensifies, she dares him to stop performing while he dares her to perform. With its hypnotic internal logic, Disturbance of the Inner Ear conjures a ravaged landscape in which anything is possible. Hacketts musical language creates a pitch-perfect first-person narrative that is evasive yet intimate, and utterly unforgettable. Stylistically daring and psychologically acute, this dazzling debut marks the arrival of an exciting new novelist.