Vikram Seth's An Equal Music tells the story of a doomed love affair involving two professional musicians living and working in London. This setting allows readers a glimpse into a small and exclusive world that few of us will know and affords Seth an opportunity to consider the place of music in the lives of those who produce it, dwelling on the daily routines, struggles and negotiations that lie beneath the music the rest of us hear. More important, though, is the novel's consideration of the role music may play in all our lives, offering a means of experiencing a powerful, if only momentary, escape from the self into a joyful and communal experience.

The characters in the novel inhabit a very insular world—comprising, for the most part, other musicians, professional agents, critics, and audiences. The novel's central character, Michael Holme, is particularly self-absorbed...