Although The Courage Consort is not Michel Faber’s most famous book, it is one of his most praised books. If you follow the world of literature, I’m sure you have seen his name before. After reading The Courage Consort, I immediately wanted to read his other work. Even if you haven’t read Michel Faber’s books, you may have watched the film Under the Skin, adapted from his book with the same name, starring Scarlett Johansson. You see that there is not much escape from this exciting author.
Michel Faber is an author who manages to keep the readers wanting for more. I can say that he is one of those “strange” authors. The Courage Consort tells the story of a vocal group consisting of five people, who settled in a castle far away from the city to rehearse. If you have a castle and a forest nearby, you cannot escape gothic literature. That interesting sound coming from the forest and no one hearing it but the soprano, adds to the tension among the group members. And the weight of the upcoming festival is pushing these five to the edge. Michel Faber knows how to create characters. Considering that there is not even an extra word in The Courage Consort, each character that comes alive between the lines will make you love the author more. Enjoy!
The Courage Consort
The Courage Consort, possibly the seventh best-known a cappella vocal ensemble in Britain, are given two weeks in a Belgian chateau to rehearse their latest commission, the monstrously complicated Partitum Mutante.
But can the piece be performed? Does it matter that its composer is a maniac best known for attacking his wife with a stiletto shoe at the baggage reclaim of Milan airport? Can the five members of the Consort endure their own sexual tensions and wildly differing temperaments? And what is the inhuman voice that calls out to them from the woods at night?
The esoteric world of avant-garde classical music is the unlikely setting for a story of rare power –
perhaps the most moving Michel Faber has yet written.
Michel Faber
Michel Faber was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. He attended primary and secondary school in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia and Bayswater, then attended the University Of Melbourne, studying Dutch, Philosophy, Rhetoric, English Language (a course involving translation and criticism of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts) and English Literature.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
