Grace Notes

Catherine McKenna struggles to pursue her talent of musical composition, a male-dominated field. After graduation from college, she finds herself on a remote Scottish island, immersed in relationship with a difficult man and the mother of a small child. Eventually, however, with the help of a long-time female friend, she escapes the depression that had overwhelmed her, takes her young daughter and leaves, and composes a masterpiece that inculcates the sounds of the Lambeg drums she heard as young woman in Northern Ireland. At the end of this book, I longed to hear the concerto that she had written. The book moved me to write to the author on his website, and he was nice enough to write back.