The Speech of Angels (Hardcover)

From the colorful, chaotic slums of Bombay's streets, to the monochromatic, efficient orderliness of Germany, from the untamed beauty of an English garden to the wildly remote Himalayas and fashion capitals of the world, Sharon Maas weaves an intriguing tale, which will hold you spellbound until the very last word.

Each character comes vividly to life with that special vibrancy found only when the author has a special relationship with the subject matter, perhaps from personal experience, and certainly from careful research and character development.

Plucked from the squalor of street life in Bombay, Jyothi faces a new life in an unfamiliar place, in which she can relate to nothing except the calming influence of music. Using her natural gift for classical music as a shield, she must overcome the tragedy of her past, and somehow fit into her new life, which often seems to swallow her entirely, her own shortcomings restricting her like iron bands.

Encouraged by her new mother, she experiences her first rush of power as she begins performing violin solos in public, and a new Jyothi begins to emerge, not entirely to her own liking.

Tragic circumstances lead to another upheaval in her life, and she is again forced to start again, in another unfamiliar place, with her only constants being her adopted father and her violin. Here however, she finds a new person to play for, and she experiences for the first time, unrequited love.

A visit to India brings back old memories, and a chance meeting rekindles a fire within her, which unfortunately is extinguished when the trip has to be cut short.

As time goes by, Jyothi becomes a famous violinist, performing around the world, and changes her name to Jade, developing a separate persona as a sophisticated professional woman who knows how to deal with whatever Fate throws her way. And boy, does Fate ever throw curveballs!

Swinging wildly between elation and depression, she retraces her roots and discovers what she had unknowingly been looking for her entire life.

This is a simple, but colorful story that approaches epic proportions on emotion, by the talented author of "Of Marriageable Age" and "Peacocks Dancing".

Amanda Richards, September 12, 2004

First told from a neutral perspective, the account shifts gradually to a first person narrative as Jyothi grows older, and as her outlook on music and on life in general changes. And it is music, first and foremost, which guides our heroine's life; not just because her adoptive mother Monika - brought up in the German middle class's view that music is a part of the Western cultural heritage and a worthwhile pursuit for that reason alone - has made her practice her violin with as much discipline as ambition once Jyothi's talent has become apparent. No: Music is one of Jyothi's earliest conscious impressions; the realization, come to her as she was listening to a boy practicing his sitar in the village where she lived before her family went to Bombay in search of work, that there just *might* be something other to life than work, marriage and child-rearing. Music also was what first brought her to the attention of Jack, her soon-to-be adoptive father, amid the dirt of a street outside the fancy Bombay hotel where he was staying with his wife: Himself a gifted musician and much more of an artist than his reserved, middle-class wife, he had started to play his guitar for her one day, and had found her singing along in perfect pitch to a song she certainly had never heard before. Thus, without the need for words, a bond had formed between Jack and Jyothi, by virtue of music alone. And so it is only natural that Jyothi soon turns to music as her preferred means of expression; relieved, by her gift to play from memory and intuition, of the necessity to decipher little black squiggles on paper (the letters, numbers and sheet music she is unable to read or write), she can say with music what she cannot express otherwise.

Yet, she always plays for others: for Monika, who first taught her discipline; then for her fans and admirers, then for the man she loves. And then, finally facing the inevitability of having to find out, once and for all, who she really is and what music means to her, she breaks down - in front of her audience, no less. So she goes back to the place where she has first experienced music as a language transgressing physical and mental boundaries a few years earlier; not as the dazzling Western art she herself had been practicing up to then but played by a simple Indian sitar teacher, and becoming synonymous with life itself. And reduced to the shreds of her former self (or selves) by a last fight of the two identities within her soul, she is able to make a new beginning, to rediscover music in a completely new light and to finally become whole.

"The Speech of Angels" - named for a quote from Thomas Carlyle's essay "The Opera" - is an intensely personal journey, but also a celebration of music, that universally understood language of the praise of creation and divinity; described with an artist's intuition in a way that almost makes the sound of Jyothi/Jade's violin, in harmony with that of the Indian sitar, glide from the pages right into the reader's ears and mind; enclosing him (or her) in sound and emotions, and in all the things which, in the words of Victor Hugo, "cannot be put into words and which cannot remain silent."

"Sleeping hearts waken - dead souls are resurrected - music brings new life," are the words of a short poem by contemporary American lyricist Marty Hansen-Roscoe, quoted at the beginning of "Speech of Angels;" and nothing could better sum up the contents of this book, and the impression that it leaves with its readers. This is one of the great literary finds of the year 2003; and it offers a wealth of beauty and sensual experience to anybody willing to undertake its journey.

How does all that change when the gifts are not material . . . but spiritual? Ah! That's the beauty of Sharon Maas's latest triumph, The Speech of Angels.

A young girl in India discovers the beauty of music while visiting with her mother. But then Jyothi's life is torn apart when the family that has always employed her family to do their laundry purchases a washing machine. Further disasters follow when the family tries to eke out a living in Bombay with laundry and begging. Then, she receives her first gift . . . a European couple saves her from a fate worse than the streets and raises her as their own daughter in Germany. Naturally being overwhelmed by all that has happened to her, her sense of obligation steals away from her sense of self. She next receives her second gift . . . the realization that she can make marvelous music herself. But the music doesn't move her like it does her listeners . . . so it's a dangerous gift. More disasters follow and she finds herself feeling cut off from all but one person . . . someone who isn't really worthy of her trust. How can she become reconciled to her gifts? That's just what you will find out by reading The Speech of Angels. Like all outstanding novels, this one will also teach you something about yourself in terms of how to receive and appreciate your gifts.

Anyone who enjoyed Of Marriageable Age or Peacocks Dancing will probably agree that The Speech of Angels marks a new high in the work of the very talented Ms. Maas. I also hope she will write a sequel to The Speech of Angels. I'd like to know more about Jyothi after she comes to terms with her gifts.

Like her previous two novels, this one is filled with karmic lessons that will appeal to those who enjoy Buddhist thought.

As someone who loves music, I enjoyed reading a novel about the life of a musical prodigy. It must be terribly difficult for the prodigy. Yet, we music fans demand so much from them! I also liked the theme of what it truly means to make music. I can hear the love (or lack thereof) in most performances I attend. Ms. Maas is quite perceptive about music. I wonder whether she favors the violin or the sitar.

As I finished the book, I realized that sometimes books should really be multi-media products instead. The Speech of Angels could have taken on totally new dimensions if accompanied by a CD that captured the music that is described so beautifully in the pages. Perhaps the publisher will provide such a product in a future edition. I certainly hope so!