Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, bitter cold and suffering. Yet there is another tale to tell.

Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos created during the boom years of the nineteenth century. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos travelled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is remarkable. That they might be capable of making music in such a hostile landscape feels like a miracle.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia is a story about a piano hunt – a quixotic journey through two centuries of Russian history and eight time zones stretching across an eleventh of the world’s land surface. It reveals not only an unexpected musical legacy, but profound humanity in the last place on earth you might expect to find it.

A critically-acclaimed Sunday Times and Spectator book of 2020, and a major new literary voice.