Product Description

Alicia is four years old when she sits down at the family piano and plays by ear a classical piece she heard earlier that day in nursery. Her parents, a couple of slightly above average musical ability, are amazed -- and increasingly stunned as Alicia grows older and they realise the extent of her talent. How do you deal with a child like this? Do you help her to fufil her amazing potential, hectoring them to practice their scales at 6 in the morning, not letting her play sport in case she damages her hands, or go out with friends in case she's distracted? Or do you let her have a normal childhood, and run the risk of her growing up unfulfilled, and the world losing an amazing talent? What's for sure is that Alicia's family are already showing stress fractures, and though they'll try to do the best they can, it's an impossible situation for mother, father and brother, and for Alicia herself, who doesn't seem to get a say in what goes on...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1183588 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Review
"'Jessica Duchen's debut novel is captivating, imaginative and fascinating. As a musician and a mother, I recognized many of the scenarios and found the questions that were posed very poignant, both from a musical and personal perspective. The pace builds powerfully to a dramatic and ultimately very moving conclusion. Completely gripping!' - Tasmin Little on RITES OF SPRING"

Music Teacher Magazine, May 2007
'Alicia's Gift' is a wonderful read. But make sure you keep the
Kleenex handy when you tackle it.

The Buxton Advertiser, August 22 2007
'A beautiful new novel'

Customer Reviews

A touch of genius.
Alicia's Gift is one of those rare novels that combines excellent narrative skill with deft characterisation whilst simultaneously increasing one's knowledge about an arcane but approachable subject.

Alicia, a child prodigy of the piano, is our heroine and her story of the impact she has on those around her, from family to fellow professionals and friends, is faultlessly charted by Jessica Duchen. Here we are not analysing genius; we observe it and with it the extaordinarily high level of hard work and personal sacrifice that unique talent insists on bringing in its wake.

The structure of the story is impeccably paced. With each page the characters develop and their own challenges and their personalities emerge. In the seas of genius there are always demons lurking underneath the surface ready to sink the fragile vessel that plots its lonely voyage. Duchen's skill lies in resisting the temptation to over characterise her subsidiary characters. She creates a thoroughly credible cast, sparingly but tellingly observed, who combine to propel the reader ever more enthusiastically towards the denouement. This is one of Duchen's great skills as a novellist. Alicia does little except study and play the piano with relentless persistence; hardly one would think, an interesting character in herself; worthy but potentially dull. After all we cannot hear her play so the supporting cast has to supply her character through their own reactions and relationships with her. This is achieved 'con brio'.

Jessica Duchen's technical grasp of plot, pace and personality combined with her formidable knowledge of music make this a simply great read. Her unobtrusive manipulation of the relationships within the novel provide a delightful reminder of Iris Murdoch.

Alicia's Gift is a thoroughly good, intelligent, read!

Give yourself pleasure: buy it!

Peak practising!
I found this book riveting. A taut plot, convincing characters and some astonishing insights into the mind of the young girl who becomes the 'Peak District prodigy', as well as a sensitive, observant portrait of a family undergoing the gradual disintegration that the imbalance of a gifted child can so easily bring. Child prodigies are fascinating and I'm only surprised that there haven't been more novels about them.

The writing is very evocative, especially the passages relating to synaesthesia, and the way Duchen builds the picture of Kate, Alicia's obsessive mother, is superb, showing us the 'stress fractures' before Alicia is even born. I felt that even if Kate's decisions made me want to scream, I could still understand all too well where she was coming from. Alicia's brother Adrian is a wonderful character, alienated, stubborn, supportive and misguided in equal measures. The atmosphere of the Peak District is well evoked and its relative isolation from the hub of musical life provides an interesting parallel with Alicia's own position in relation to her peers.

But rather than being a neurotic nutcase as she so easily could have been, Alicia is drawn as a very "normal" girl who happens to have a God-given gift. She's the most sensible, kind, natural and sympathetic person in the cast, but what most of the people around her respond to is, unfortunately, not her real self but her ability to play the piano.

It would have been the same, one feels, were she a tennis player or a maths prodigy or an Olympic athlete - this is an archetypal drama of the gifted child and, behind that, the universal, increasing rift between mother and daughter as the girl transforms into a woman.

Prepare yourself for a treat!
I was delighted to find this book as I thoroughly enjoyed Jessica Duchen's first book, Rite of Spring. I couldn't put Alicia's Gift down, I was totally absorbed. Anyone who has had personal experience with any of the issues raised in this book will tell you that Duchen doesn't miss a beat. Every emotion is minutely portrayed, and I found myself cringing with acute understanding everytime Alicia's mother, Kate, uttered the words 'Go and do your practising'. A cautionary tale indeed ... any parents out there living their failed dreams through their children, beware! You don't need in-depth musical knowledge to appreciate this book. If you strip away the feeling of elitism associated with the instrumental music world, you're left with a modern day tale of a badly dysfunctional family being torn apart by a control freak of a mother.

Can't imagine what Jessica Duchen has in store for her next novel but it's certainly something to look forward to. If anything, Alicia's gift has the edge on her first one.