Discord - by Jeremy Cooper (Paperback)

About the Book

Charting the course of the intense and at times fractious relationship between middle-aged composer Rebekah Rosen and the young star-saxophonist Evie Bennet, Discord is a wry and insightful exploration of creative collaboration.

Book Synopsis

Jeremy Cooper, the author of Brian, returns with Discord, a subjective journey through the world of classical music. On a night in August, an audience at the Royal Albert Hall attends the first ever concert of Distant Voices. The Proms performance is the culmination of a year's work between the middle-aged composer Rebekah Rosen and the young star-saxophonist Evie Bennet. Alternating between both perspectives, Discord charts the course of their intense and at times fractious relationship, the resonances and dissonances both women find within one another, as well as the struggles and satisfactions that accompany an artistic life. At the heart of the novel is an inquiry into the generative force behind creative collaboration. In what ways does the inexpressible - that amorphous space of friction and unity between musicians - become indelible? And by what process do flawed individuals create works of transcendence? Deeply insightful, at turns poignant and wry, Discord affirms Jeremy Cooper's status as one of the most interesting fiction writers at work today.

Review Quotes

'Brian is affecting, funny and, at 184 pages, a skilfully compressed chronicle of one man's life and the cornucopia of film that enriches it.'
-- Max Liu, Financial Times (praise for Brian)

'Cooper does a superb job of inhabiting this singular character's point of view, and of deftly weaving into the narrative Brian's thoughts and feelings about the films he sees. I was delighted by the book's gentle humor and lucid prose style, and I can think of no finer exploration of what can happen when a person is fully open and attentive to art, and how a shared passion for art can connect people to one another.'
-- Sigrid Nunez, New Yorker (praise for Brian)

'Easily the best novel I've read this decade.'
-- Olivia Laing, Guardian (praise for Brian)

'There's a strange magic to Jeremy Cooper's writing. The way he puts words together creates an incantatory effect. Reading him is to be spellbound, then. I have no idea how he does it, only that I am seduced.'
-- Ben Myers, author of The Offing (praise for Brian)

'What makes Jeremy Cooper's seventh novel appealing and convincing is the author's serene prose and tender, understated empathy.... This is an affectionate, thoughtful portrait of a gentle soul.'
-- David Collard, Times Literary Supplement (praise for Brian)

About the Author

Jeremy Cooper is a writer and art historian, author of seven previous novels and several works of non-fiction, including the standard work on nineteenth century furniture, studies of young British artists in the 1990s, and, in 2019, the British Museum's catalogue of artists' postcards. Early on he appeared in the first twenty-four of BBC's Antiques Roadshow and, in 2018, won the first Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize for Ash before Oak.