Where the Song Goes Sébastien Ménestrier

“The danger has a name for me, anxiety. Being so close to being unable to take a step, to say a word, ever. To fade away. So I started writing these stories about music, because music is a friend, it would help me. Music has been with me since that night when I was twelve years old, alone at home. I had left her, I didn’t understand her. I found her again. I played the piano that night and I haven’t stopped.”

“Where the song goes” is an acknowledgement of the power of music, a debt that Sébastien Ménestrier feels towards it. Music saved him, helped him to escape from a deep anxiety. His characters are inspired by a song by Nick Cave or Nina Simone, by the life of a singer, such as Amy Winehouse or Georges Gershwin, by a flute solo in a Johannes Brahms symphony, or by the working method of Béla Bartók. Under the influence of alcohol or loneliness, of a fascination for a star or for a simple unattainable neighbour, loners or bad boys, the characters tell their singular, violent and often infinitely tender stories.

About the author

Born in 1979, Sébastien Ménestrier is a pianist and teacher. His first novel “During the battles” (Gallimard, 2013) was a finalist for the Goncourt prize for first novels. His third novel, “The song of Shilo”, (Zoé, 2022) is a contemporary reading of an episode from Homer.

• Thom Yorke, Bartók, Brahms, Gershwin, Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, Nick Cave… nine stories to face danger, nine stories to get away with it

• A homage to the power of music

• Violent and infinitely tender stories

Willibald

Narrative non fiction / 144 p.

First Printed: February 2023

Rights

WORLD FRENCH: Éditions Zoé