Alain Claude Sulzer Book order

In the middle of a concert, in the middle of a piece, the internationally renowned pianist stands up, says "that's it," and walks out. This decision will change his life, but also those of the people in his entourage and audience in a whole array of unforeseen ways. There is Marek Olsberg, the pianist himself, his agent, his secretary, one of the waiters supposed to be working at the after-concert party, audience members and so on. Affairs are revealed as people come home unexpectedly, relationships broken or patched up, there are endings and new beginnings

It is 1966. Erneste works in a grand hotel in Switzerland. He is the 'perfect waiter', a model of order in every way. But inwardly this polite, withdrawn man has been caught in the grip of an overwhelming passion that began in the summer of 1935. Going down to the lakeside back then to meet new staff members off the boat, Erneste sees a tall young man, Jakob, and falls hopelessly in love. For Jakob the affair is just a fling, but for Erneste it is true love. When the great German writer Julius Klinger arrives at the hotel, seeking sanctuary from Hitler's Germany, his gaze, too, lights on Jakob. One morning, three decades later, Erneste receives a letter with a US postmark from Jakob asking for help. It is a call that forces Erneste to engage with the world again and risk discovering the truth behind his memories of the great love of his youth. Shifting skilfully between two eras, Sulzer's tense, moving and elegantly written novel is a small masterpiece about the joy and pain of love.