Music and Freedom by Zoe Morrison

I found this book when I was looking through the longlist for the 2017 Australian Indie Book awards. Unlike The Good People, it didn't make the shortlist; however, I much preferred it. Zoe Morrison was a Rhodes Scholar and it shows. Her writing is fabulous, particularly the detail about music, academic life, and domestic violence. The book, her debut novel, brings together subjects she's very familiar with and areas that she had to research.

The book tells the story of Alice Murray, an Australian music prodigy who is sent to an English boarding school at the age of 7 to develop her skills. As a young woman, she meets Edward, a handsome Oxford academic, who makes just enough of an effort to persuade her to marry him; he then quickly begins to mistreat her. The story jumps between Alice's life in 2005, when she is in her early seventies and seemingly losing her mind, and her early life. Morrison begins each chapter with a date; this makes it very easy to follow the story.

Themes include friendship, marriage, love and family.  I noticed that there are over 100 books on Goodreads with the title Behind Closed Doors; this book doesn't quite fit with those. There are lots of detailed descriptions of piano playing that make it difficult to decide whether it's a book about music that touches on domestic violence or vice versa. I thought the relationship between Alice and her son Richard was particularly interesting. I was curious to find out what Richard would think of Alice when he became an adult and whether he would become like his father.

The book is not a thriller with dramatic plot twists. It's a carefully painted picture that brings Alice and her world to life. I hope it turns out to be the first of many novels that Morrison writes.