Joseph Flynn is a middle-aged Catholic priest who finds himself at his bishop’s behest, on an eight-day silent retreat. The fusty, 'stale environment has little to offer but a desk, pen and paper, and ample time to make use of them. Filling page after page, he delves into his past, the loss of his vocation, his uncontrollable craving for sex, and the events which are destroying his life. Celebrated concert pianist and composer Stephen Hough unflinchingly explores these disturbing contradictions in this passionate and sophisticated novel.

A collection of essays on music and life by the famed classical pianist and composerStephen Hough is one of the world's leading pianists, winning global acclaim and numerous awards, both for his concerts and his recordings. He is also a writer, composer, and painter, and has been described by The Economist as one of "Twenty Living Polymaths."Hough writes informally and engagingly about music and the life of a musician, from the broader aspects of what it is to walk out onto a stage or to make a recording, to specialist tips from deep inside the practice room: how to trill, how to pedal, how to practice. He also writes vividly about people he's known, places he's traveled to, books he's read, paintings he's seen; and he touches on more controversial subjects, such as assisted suicide and abortion. Even religion is there—the possibility of the existence of God, problems with some biblical texts, and the challenges involved in being a gay...