Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (Independent Bookshop Exclusive with Designed Edges & Author Letter)

Here’s my question: How does a person step in front of a train and leave everything right there?

Livia Bohusz misses her big brother, Cyrus. But since the day he took his own life, a day that changed everything, eleven-year-old Livia has also known she has no choice but to survive.

Her solace is music. A gifted pianist, Livia’s only escape is the quiet rapture it brings as she practises, so when Livia starts college as a music major and scholarship prodigy, it feels as if a new life might begin. Immersing herself in her passions in a world where she excels, even as she struggles to fit in with more urbane classmates, she glimpses the possibilities of a life beyond the farm and her parents.

Then one springtime, as the smell of reviving grass and crocuses, and the sounds of songbirds fill the air, Livia catches a glimpse of shirt sleeves rolled to the elbow, muscles you wouldn’t miss in the rear view:

‘Who is that man?’

It is a question Livia may come to wish she had never asked.