Why a Booktrail?
1940s to present: The story of two women, various moves to new countries and a mix of various cultures – and the one unifying force: Music.
Under the Visible Life
What you need to know before your trail
Hamilton, Ontario: Katherine Goodnow has not got a happy childhood. her Canadian mother has been locked away for having a child with a Chinese man. Katherine is both of these cultures but neither. When she is a teenager she discovers jazz, a talent for the piano and the strength to face what life throws at her.
Karachi – Mahsa Weaver is only 12 when she is sent to live in Karachi following the death of her parents. She escapes to Montreal but is forced into an arranged marriage. Music becomes her salvation too and she starts to think of freedom
New York – From two very different backgrounds, these two women meet and the real power of music is revealed
Travel Guide
Catherine and Mahsa are two women from very different backgrounds and are both mixed race. Canada is the setting for most of the story and is the place where Catherine first encounters racial prejudice, and where Mahsa escapes to in order to try and escape her life in Karachi.
Pakistan and Karachi
With Mahsa, we see the strict life she lives under in Pakistan and in Karachi when she is forced to live there. Life in Canada is not easy either however – although Mahsa is now in Montreal, prejudice and racial issues have followed her here too albeit in different ways. the girl of two cultures is now living amongst a third and she has a problem of identity,missing home in some ways and feeling that freedom is not freedom in every sense of the word.
Amidst the various cultural and racial issues which weave through each and every page, forming each of the stories in turn, the musical notes of jazz forms the notes of cohesion in both these girls lives. The music shines and unites but it is the girl’s passion and transformation when playing that is the true performance of the piece.
Jazz Music in Montreal
Oh and the music – If you’re a fan of jazz, boy are you in for a treat. The music flies from the page with every word a new note. You get to see inside real life venues, meet real life musicians such as Mary Osborne showcasing the real and imitable talent found in the jazz world.
Jazz really does form a world of music into which these women can escape. The very notes, the healing power of the improvisational music symbolizes the new freedom and possibilities for these women as the music takes them elsewhere.
Streetview Maps
New York - The Village Vanguard jazz club
New York - The Village Gate sign
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
The cover and the blurb do not do this book justice in my opinion. This is one heck of a novel and an amazing tribute to all the Mahsa’s and Katherines of this world, to the Jazz greats and to the beauty of language and music.
This is also a novel which got me in many powerful ways – the mix of cultures, the struggles and the racial prejudice that follows them through life from one country to the next. The forces that try but luckily fail to keep these women from their true calling and from freedom itself. This was one powerful novel and I also loved the other characters we meet along the way especially the Jazz musicians! I absolutely love jazz and play it myself so to be in a novel with these people was just an amazing experience and really cemented these girls stories for me. What a powerful novel on so many levels and a very clever one too. I got to know the Jazz scene in Montreal very well indeed when I lived there – I practically lived in these clubs so this was a huge huge treat for me to read.
These girls should be the ones that people look up to today -role models for the sheer number of struggles an problems that they overcome. It was fascinating to read of the blend of cultures, what it feels like from the girls point of view to feel lost and confused as to where the belong, to have that fear and guilt carried with them. Seen through their eyes, this was a book – no an experience that will stay with me for a long time yet.
Where Next?
