Summary

In November, Elise meets Karina for their weekly walk. Karina had not known that Boston’s flourishing music scene was entirely classical, and she has often wondered whether Richard knew that moving for his own career would destroy Karina’s. Elise was a colleague of Richard’s, a jazz faculty professor, but she and Karina lost touch when Elise got cancer, Karina became pregnant, and Richard started touring. Karina would never give up Grace, but she imagines what her playing would be like if she had had Richard’s luxury of practicing ten hours a day. Because Karina chose Grace, she has always told herself Richard must be a “selfish monster” to choose the piano (67). She wonders for the first time if he started having affairs before or after she resented him. Years later, Elise moved in across the street, and she and...