Peter Goldsworthy AM is the acclaimed author of eight novels, including most recently Minotaur, but Maestro is his first. It made quite a splash, with shortlisting in the 1990 Miles Franklin award and went on to be included in the 2003 the Australian Society of Authors list of the top-forty Australian books ever published. (Which was, BTW, a pretty good list, if the 28 which I've read are anything to go by).

Described in the Macquarie Anthology of Australian Literature as a classic coming-of-age narrative featuring a gifted and slightly sinister music teacher whose story has dark roots in the Second World War, the novel is a bit of a rarity because it's set in Darwin. There are only nine with Northern Territory settings reviewed on this blog and apart from Jeannie Gunn's We of the Never Never, I can't think of too many more.

The climate is a constant element in the narrative. Here is the schoolboy Paul Crabbe meeting for the first time his enigmatic piano teacher, Herr Eduard Keller.

Outside, the sound of thunder carried to us, distantly: the sound of February, of deepest, darkest Wet. The room was stifling, oppressive, but the louvred wooden slats that formed two opposing walls remained closed, the ceiling fan stilled. Not a whisper of movement stirred in the sticky air.

I sensed that I was undergoing some kind of test.

'Heat,' Keller suddenly pronounced, 'we can withstand. A little discomfort is necessary to maintain alertness. But noise...

He gestured in the direction of the louvred wall that faced onto the balcony—the direction of the beer garden below.

My mother smiled uncertainly and dabbed a handkerchief at her brow. The sweat was beginning to gather, the droplets aggregating into larger drops, heavy as mercury. Newcomers in Darwin, we had moved from the temperate South barely a month before; she found the climate unbearable. (p.5)

Maestro, as he comes to be called behind his back, is a stranger to Darwin too, though no longer a newcomer to a city of booze, blow and blasphemy. Paul's curiosity is aroused from the outset by Keller's missing fifth finger, its absence flaunted by a gold ring on the stump. Graceless and awkward, and determined to remain aloof from the crassness that surrounds him, Keller is a hard taskmaster, never satisfied by Paul's best efforts. He refuses, too, to satisfy the boy's curiosity about his Austrian origins, about the sepia photos on the piano, about the numbers tattooed on his arm although he isn't Jewish.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/05/08/maestro-by-peter-goldsworthy/ ( )

Some books stay with you don't they. This one will stay just that bit longer, I loved it! I bought it after reading Wish by the same author but I must say, I enjoyed Maestro much more. I've had it sitting on my shelves since 2016 and if it's on your TBR pile, go get it and read it now! The main characters are Herr Keller the ageing maestro with a history he doesn't want to reveal until it was too late and Paul, an adolescent boy not sure of his place in the world but the book is peppered with a wonderful assortment of people. Set in Darwin early in the 70's I think, these two are brought together by a love of the piano but have trouble settling into the relationship of teacher/student. This is an emotional story beautifully written, it slowly draws you in and takes a firm hold and underpinning it all is the wonderful music. ( )

A young man takes singing lessons from a Viennesse maestro/teacher. Set against the back drop of Darwin in 1968. A boy struggles to determine his future direction. The love of music is explored thru the lessons he takes with a teacher, foreign, indifferent and challenging to "Paul's" experiences of coming of age. The teachers dark past is slowly revealed. Paul's sense of his teacher from boyhood becomes stronger as he travels around Europe performing concert after concert in search of his boyhood dream of becoming a successful pianist.

Enjoyable, well written with an uneventful charm and pace that can only be appreciated by other's having grown up in Australia in the 70's. ( )

Very well written! ( )

1 0f 23 books all for $10 ( )