Just finished reading...

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke (Ballantine trade paperback, 13 October 2020).

This book is a delight.  It's a story about humans, poetry, families, love, and death, but the main character is music. It's so well-written that I couldn't decide whether I wanted to read it quickly (because the story was so engaging), or slowly (in order to savor the exquisite prose).

We don't meet the song until after we've met the person who initiates it: Australian concert pianist, Diana Clare. Diana composes most of a song after an argument with her fiancé the night before she leaves on a month-long tour.  She inscribes it in a leather bound music manuscript book, intending to work on it while she's away.

Tragically, Diana's life ends before she can return home.  But she leaves the notebook beside a piano in a hotel in Singapore.  The notebook is discovered by a Canadian businessman who decides that rather than leave it up to the hotel to return it to its owner, he'll do it himself once he gets home.

But he forgets, and it languishes on a bookshelf until his daughter picks it up, needing some manuscript paper.

And so, the journey of the song begins, passing from musician to musician, making its way around the world, connecting people as it travels.  

Rather than make a trite comment here about the power of music (oops!), I'm just going to firmly recommend that you read it. 

Oh, one last thought:  it will be perfect for book clubs!