Deborah Levy is a dizzyingly good writer, and August Blue spoke to me in a way that I crave from all books, but rarely ever receive. The use of music, colour, parallels and patterns entwined through this novel make it fully encompassing and transformative; it reads like a half-waking dream but feels as real as if it were my own internal dialogue. The ambiguity of the double only highlights further the introspection within this book, projected as we so often do into the voice of another to facilitate the irreconcilable contradictions that are inevitable in any human experience. This is a book to be returned to.

Deborah Levy is one of the most creative writers of contemporary English literature. August Blue is an interesting, experimental novel about a young women’s search for her identity and happiness (or maybe a search for the root of her unhappiness). It seamlessly and beautifully moves between comedy and darkness. The protagonist is a successful musician who walks off the stage in mid performance. The book is pure Levy. You literally find yourself in this person’s mind, navigating the story Levy maps out for you, all the while employing exquisite word play and building the story as if it’s a musical score, but in fragments “full of dissonant harmonic intervals”. The core of the story is fully of sadness, mystery and wanting to belong. It is one of those rare books where you have to re-read passages before you appreciate the brilliant virtuoso of words she is as an author.

The best random train station purchase I have made. Original, gripping, easy to read, yet so skilful, such light touch to this ingenious style. The first book I have read by the author, and am keen to seek out more.

August Blue by Deborah Levy is a true delight, slightly surreal, totally original. Whilst travelling in Athens, Elsa sees a lady in a market buying two novelty horses for which she develops an intense desire to own. This lady sticks in her mind - she finds herself in conversation with her even though she is not present. Elsa was a celebrated piano player until recently when she suffered an onstage mental block and was unable to perform the piece by Rachmaninov that she had started playing. Since then she has been teaching on a commission basis in Paris and then Sardinia. Elsa’s complicated early life story emerges as she meets people both at home in London and on her travels. Levy’s writing is truly a joy to read; she effortlessly creates interesting characters placing them in unusual situations but only disclosing partial information keeping us on tenterhooks before revealing their backstory little by little.

I went from enjoying and appreciating Levy's novels to becoming slightly obsessed with her last year after reading her autobiographical trilogy, which were superb. Then I listened to her being interviewed on The Great Women Artists' podcast and my obsession kicked up a notch. I was so excited when I got the chance to review August Blue and I wasn't disappointed. Elsa is an acclaimed concert pianist who spectacularly unravels on stage in Vienna. The trauma pushes her into a kind of self-imposed exile and we follow her around Europe in the aftermath of the disaster as she teaches piano and attempts to figure out what is happening to her. There is so much to unpack in this short novel I don't entirely know where to start. For me there are elements of Virginia Woolf as we plunge into and out of Elsa's experiences and the landscape through which she moves. It has that Woolfian, dreamlike quality that I love. There is a surrealist edge as thought, dream and reality blur and entwine and you are never quite sure which element is driving the book forward. The landscape, which is integral to the plot is rendered with painterly intensity and yet it is music which provides the tempo and drive. There are cinematic elements which allow you to connect to what is happening and altogether this is a novel which pulls on and demands that you attend with all your senses. I have only just finished it and I already want to start reading it again.