Goin’ Home

On a research trip to the roots of American music, music student Petra suddenly finds herself immersed in times gone by. In New York's Ottendorfer Library, she witnesses pioneering figures in music history engaged in heated debates about the unifying and distinctive aspects of music, about identity and appropriation. She begins to sense the explosive relevance of these supposedly outdated discourses.
The protagonists are none other than Antonín Dvořák, Amy Beach, and Bud Powell, along with the mysterious Navajo librarian López and Bukar, Petra's Nigerian friend, whose belief in unifying ideals is also put to the test in the fight for justice.

Between European Romanticism, African-American spirituals, Native American music, and bebop; between Boston high society, the promises of California's New Frontier, smoky jazz clubs in Harlem, and the New York NGO scene; between racism and melting pot, cultural self-assertion and appropriation, exchange and dissent—identities become fluid in this multi-layered novel.

A captivating read, not only for music experts. A dazzling reflection of current debates on identity, in which simple answers become blurred and every "going home" is also a new departure.

Christian Much (born in Luxembourg in 1953) lives in his adopted homes of South Baden and South Tyrol. He writes about what has fascinated him throughout his professional life: politics, international criminal law, culture, and—his hobby since childhood—music. His first novels, published in 2021 (Der andere Ast – Eine alternative Geschichte Südtirols and Michls letzte Reise), also deal with the coexistence of people from different cultures.

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