num_pages: 179
description: "Max Delmarc, age fifty, is a famous concert pianist with two the first, severe stage fright for which the second, alcohol, is the only cure. In this unparalled comedy by Prix Goncourt-winner Jean Echenoz, we journey with Max from the trials of his everyday life to his untimely death and on into the afterlife." "After a brief stay in purgatory - part luxury hotel, part minimum-security prison supervised by dead celebrities - Max is sentenced to "the urban zone", a partition of hell bearing an uncanny resemblance to his native Paris on an eternally gloomy day." Forbidden to reveal his true identity, Max engages in a hapless struggle to piece his former life back together while searching in vain for the women he once loved.
language: English
title: Piano
titlecomplete: Piano
genres: Fiction, French Literature, France, Contemporary, Music, Roman, 21st Century, Novels
ratings_count: 550
publisher: Harvill Press