On one level, this is a story about love; the love of a woman lost and found and lost again. A chance sighting on a London bus, a letter that should never have been read, a pianist with a secret that touches the heart of her music: from a multiplicity of details, Vikram Seth creates, once again, a living, breathing world that enchants and grips the reader. This is also a book about music and about how the love of music can run like a passionate theme through a life.