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Crescendo

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What to expect

How far are you willing to go to get what you truly desire?

It’s the summer of 1957 and Max, a piano prodigy, is on a sold-out concert tour.

His beautiful twin sister, Natasha, serves as his manager and minder. But despite Natasha’s careful planning, he begins, for the first time in his career, to make mistakes on stage. Upending his schedule to seek a cure in Paris, Max sets up the pair in the sprawling mansion of a handsome and wealthy count. But Henri is more than just a patron of the arts; he has also been – unknown to Max – Natasha’s lover.

Freed from the familiar dynamic of manager and talent, Natasha’s simmering resentment and Max’s deep insecurity turn into a rivalry, as the two vie for Henri’s attention. While Henri woos Natasha in galleries and cafés during the day, it is Max’s playing that draws him from bed each night.
As the twins compete, the fractures in their already vulnerable relationship start to show, with devastating consequences for both.


'An enthralling literary symphony of ambition, desire and obsession' LAYNE FARGO
'I couldn’t tear myself away' ERIN KELLY
'Thrilling, claustrophobic, passionate' BRIDGET COLLINS
'A riveting study in pressure - artistic, romantic and familial' LARA PRESCOTT
'I devoured it' ANNA BAILEY
'Sumptuous and intoxicating. . . a perfect summer read' RACHEL BLACKMORE
‘Heady and intoxicating' KAT DUNN
© Jane Healey 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

An enthralling literary symphony of ambition, desire, and obsession, Jane Healey’s Crescendo captures the creative and destructive power of art with prose so immersive you’ll feel like you’re watching an Oscar-worthy film play in your head
Layne Fargo, author of THE FAVOURITES
An enormous pleasure to read – a thrilling, claustrophobic, passionate study of ambition, neurosis and desire that really sucked me in. And I loved the setting too, it made me want to go on holiday somewhere glamorous so the view matched the writing
Bridget Collins, author of THE NAKED LIGHT
I couldn’t tear myself away from this captivating, heady novel that draws a taut string between the needs of the flesh and the demands of art. The literary love triangle between Max, Natasha and Henri joins the exalted ranks of The Great Gatsby and Brideshead Revisited
Erin Kelly, author of THE SKELETON KEY
A riveting study in pressure - artistic, romantic, and familial - set within the rarefied world of 1950s French concert halls and ballet. Jane Healey renders ambition and rivalry with remarkable psychological acuity, illuminating the quiet compromises and irreversible choices that shape a life devoted to genius
Lara Prescott, author of THE SECRETS WE KEPT
This stylish, passionate novel transports you to the gilded salons and concert halls of 1950s Paris, with two gorgeous twins, a count, and a dancer who each make big moves and mistakes for love. But the book's greatest question revolves around genius - how to grow it, to keep it, to not lose everything for its sake - and every page in Crescendo builds to its haunting and resounding answer
Maria Hummel, author of STILL LIVES
Phenomenal and compulsive, a simmering tale of sibling rivalry and the heady world of classical music. It is really a love story, a love of music, a love of siblings, a love of life. The prose was tender, sexy even and most importantly precise: as accomplished as a virtuoso pianist playing a sonata. I found the ending unexpected and bruising. Terrific
Molly Aitken, author of BRIGHT I BURN
A delicious unravelling of complicated siblings in the most sumptuous of settings, I devoured it
Anna Bailey, author of OUR LAST WILD DAYS
A heady and intoxicating tale of rivalry and obsession, talent and envy, desire and destruction – Crescendo set me ablaze
Kat Dunn, author of HUNGERSTONE
Sumptuous and intoxicating, a ravishing novel of gilded lives, classical music, artistic obsession, and the destructive pull of sibling rivalry - a perfect summer read
Rachel Blackmore, author of COSTANZA
Crescendo is the perfect title for this book, not only because it revolves around a brilliant pianist, but because the story builds, slowly, grippingly, leaving you breathless with every new revelation, heart beating in your ears until the explosive ending. Then, on the final page, it offers a beautiful note of hope. Healey is an artist
Carinn Jade, author of ASTROLOGY HOUSE
Author Jane Healey
Narrator Joe Jameson, Celeste Dring
Duration 10 hours and 17 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529975277
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Family life fiction, Historical fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Music, Narrative theme: Love and relationships
Availability AU, GB, IE

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