Mirror by Lera Auerbach

Mirror is a philosophical novel of love, memory, and time, a work in which the world appears as a field of reflections, each thing seen in the light of another. It is a book of rare inward freedom and spiritual clarity, in which childhood, music, myth, and language are gathered into a profound vision of what it means to be human.

— Vladimir Gandelsman, writer

“Mirror is a novel remarkable alike in conception and in form. Its structure, composed of twenty-four preludes and twenty-four postludes, turns form itself into a mirror, so that each part reflects the other and acquires new meaning. With exceptional virtuosity, Auerbach brings to prose the precision of structure and subtlety of nuance more often associated with music. At the heart of the novel lie childhood and memory, that vanishing substance of life which, despite loss, continues to shine through language.”

— Solomon Volkov, writer

“Her magnum opus can scarcely be called prose at all. It is a poetic work of a singular kind: delicate, elegant, and seemingly effortless in movement, yet entirely lucid in its intricate weave of motifs, a coming-of-age novel cast as a virtuoso solo.”

— Alexander Genis, writer

About the book

Mirror is a novel shaped by reflection. Composed in twenty-four preludes and twenty-four postludes, it unfolds as a sequence of returns, in which each part echoes and alters another. The precision of musical structure meets the freedom of poetic thought.

Childhood, myth, loss, and inner life are gathered into a sustained meditation on memory and time. Mirror asks what remains when so much has been lost, and what it means to remember, to love, and to endure.

https://leraauerbach.com/books/mirror-by-lera-auerbach/