The flute-player

by D. M. Thomas

The Flute-Player, is set in an unnamed city of chaos, probably in Russia; there are glimpses of Leningrad, and the book is dedicated to the dissident Russian poets Mandlestam, Pasternak, Akhmatova, and Tsvetayeva. Elena, a flute player, here is the embodiment of the persecuted creative spirit, endangered by the city's totalitarian regime. Her presence is often lost, though, in the novel's whirl of characters, fast-moving incidents, and mood changes. --http//biography.jrank.org/