August Blue: A piano prodigy discovers herself through a doppelganger

? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

A story about a woman discovering her identity beyond her career:August Blue by Deborah Levy follows the story of famed classical pianist Elsa Anderson who, after a disastrous performance, embarks on a journey across Europe. The physical journey plays out in parallel with an internal road to discovering her own identity, uncoupled from her musical talent and once-booming career as a piano prodigy. This metaphorical journey is in part illustrated through a doppelganger — whom Anderson comes across in a flea market in Athens at the outset of the book, and who seems to follow the protagonist across the continent. At its core, the novel delves into themes of happiness and self-discovery, leaning on what the Guardian refers to as “a deeply Freudian fable of lost memory and severed selves.”