Unwritten Secrets

by Ronald Frame

Mariel Baxter, a famous American soprano, has suddenly cancelled all her recitals and flown to Vienna. In the 1980s she came to the city to study the art of lieder singing with the reclusive Ursule Kroll, one of the brightest stars of the Nazi era and a favourite of the Führer himself. The two haven't communicated since Mariel's unexpected departure over twenty-five years ago. So why has Mariel come back? As Ursule and Mariel play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, terrible revelations about the past begin to unfold, and both women soon discover that some secrets are better left buried. Scotland's finest contemporary writer.' Alexander McCall Smith '(Ronald Frame's) novel strikes with flair and reasonance those dissonant chords of money and desire,fame and politi, that rumble behind great music and its makers.Its various mysteries unfold at a presto gallop, free of all Viennese schmaltz, in a tight-knit, allusive and sardonic more Alban Berg than Richard Strauss.' Boyd Tonkin The Independent '...Frame is particularly adept at depicting the interplay between music, love and desire-both lesbian and hetrosexual- and the price that all practitioners have to pay to perfect their art.' Michael Ardetti The Financial Times

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Ronald Frame was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1953, and educated there and at Oxford. He is the author of thirteen internationally published works of fiction, is an award-winning television and radio scriptwriter, and has recently received international recognition for his short stories set in the fictitious Scottish spa town of Carnbeg.

In 1984 he was joint-winner of the first Betty Trask Prize for fiction. In 1999 his novel The Lantern Bearers was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize and won the 2000 Saltire Award for Scottish Book of the Year.

In August 2001 he delivered the inaugural Saltire Lecture at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which received wide press coverage. He spoke at the New York Public Library in late October 2001 following appearances at the Toronto International Festival of Authors. The American Library Association named Ronald Frame as winner of the Barbara Gittings Honor Award in Fiction for 2003.

Reviews

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful

[Stuart Woollard · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a lover of classical music, opera and lieder, I enjoyed the subject matter of this book (which may not appeal to everyone). The relationship between the two singers, younger and older, and the gradual revelations from their past lives worked well until about two thirds of the way through when (to me) the structure seemed in danger of breaking down and the tension was lost. By the time the final (shocking but anticipated) revelation came, I was more than ready for the book to conclude!

[Rachael McDiarmid · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I would have given it closer to 4 but I got a bit cranky with whomever edited the book early on for a few mistakes (like mentioning one character in a scene when they weren't even in that period). That said, I quite liked the story, the culture, the music, the locations (Vienna and Germany), the history, the characters...but going on the blurb I was expecting something much bigger to happen. It was building and building, and I was intrigued, but it wasn't the big revelation or explosion I thought was coming. It wasn't really anything... but a decent story nonetheless.