Autumn 1946 finds war-weary brothers reunited in their beloved Hartgrove Hall, a country house much the worse for wear after years of billeting British and American troops "with mightier preoccupations than pruning the roses or sweeping the drawing room chimney." Natasha Solomons piques readers' interest in the tale of the Dorset estate and its heirs by opening The Song of Hartgrove Hall with a funeral in the year 2000.
In an effective to-and-fro, Solomons (The House at Tyneford) teases out the story of the narrator, renowned composer Harry Fox-Talbot (or "Fox"), his brother Jack and the famous songstress Edie Rose--who arrives at Hartgrove in 1946 as Jack's paramour, and for whom Fox is mourning in the opening pages, as his late wife.
In impeccably proper British prose, Fox relates the story of the near-loss of the family estate to the wrecking ball and the love triangle that led to his marrying Edie. Knowing how these crises end does not detract from the novel's suspense, as the connecting theme--music--develops through an additional storyline: Fox's grief abates when his four-year-old grandson reveals his astounding, precocious gift as a pianist.
Fox, whose career was sidelined by Edie's death, devotes himself to nurturing young Robin's musical development, reaffirming the grandfather's affable character and eventually rewarding him with renewed peace and optimism. Descriptions of the verdant British countryside, the grandeur of the manse, and Fox and Edie's devotion combine in a novel as engaging as Downton Abbey and as literary as a Brontë work. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco