Orpheus Lost

By Janette Turner Hospital

In this powerful and achingly beautiful novel, Janette Turner Hospital tackles head-on questions of national security, art, terrorism and love.

From the moment Leela’s ear catches the first few bars of music in between the roar of subway trains, she’s entranced by its haunting beauty. Letting the music reel her in, in perfect fifths, it’s at the end of the inbound platform that she finds Mishka Bartok, singing Che farò senza Euridice and accompanying himself on the violin. He’s surrounded by a cluster of commuters, but hardly seems to notice they are there until he stops playing. Despite Mishka’s reluctance to talk, Leela discovers that he’s a graduate student at Harvard, studying composition. She’s a mathematician at MIT, researching the math of music. Their connection is immediate, and that night they embark on a steamy love affair.

Living together in Boston, Leela and Mishka pursue their mutual passions — both academic and carnal — in a fog, as if the outside world does not exist. They have both distanced themselves from their families — Mishka from his mother and grandparents in Australia, Leela from her father and sister back in Promised Land, South Carolina. Both recoil from the reality of the city streets, where terrorists attack American civilians and a subway bombing under Harvard Square comes dangerously close to tearing their world apart. But that is ultimately the effect of the bombing, when Leela is grabbed off the street, thrust into a dark car, and taken to an interrogation room. There, she is questioned about the recent attacks by a masked man who tells her he’s a member of a private security force. He also asks directly about Mishka — who often visits an Arab café and a mosque that are under surveillance, and socializes with known instigators… all signs that he’s a terrorist, or at least aiding those responsible for the subway bombing.

When Leela’s captor removes his mask at last, Cobb stands before her: the person she was perhaps closest to as a teenager back in Promised Land. Since leaving the army, after a long stint in the Middle East, he’s been involved in paramilitary work. Cobb knows from experience that photographs can be disastrously misinterpreted, but in his eyes, Mishka is guilty. Against her instincts, Leela thinks back to Mishka’s many unexplained disappearances, often around the time of such attacks. It’s then that she realizes the mystery and intensity at the heart of their relationship could be hiding much more than she’d thought.

Mishka disappears again the next day, and doubt erodes Leela’s love as she embarks on her own investigation to find him and unravel the mystery of his life. Little does she know that her search will lead her across the globe and into an underworld of kidnapping, torture and despair.

With this compelling re-imagining of the Orpheus story, Janette Turner Hospital again shows her genius, interweaving a literary thriller with a story of passion and the triumph of decency in confusing and dangerous times. It is at once a love story on a grand scale that spans America, Australia and the Middle East, and an exploration of how ghastly side effects of terrorism can wreak havoc on individual lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307369574

Janette Turner Hospital

Janette Turner Hospital was born in Melbourne and grew up in Queensland. She is currently Professor of English and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of South Carolina.

Reviews for Orpheus Lost

[heathereb_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really loved this book. I know the storyline seemed a bit far-fetched at times, but I loved the quirkiness of the characters, from the mysterious uncle playing in the upstairs room in the Daintree, to the father with all of his hangups. I introduced it to my book club and it really divided the members, some enjoying the read and others not coping with the gaps in the storyline and the fracturing of the story as you move from one character to another. I found it rich and rewarding.

[floratina · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

READ IN DUTCH

It may not really come as a surprise that this book is like a modern retelling of the story of Orpheus and Euridice. Although in this book, 'Orpheus' gets lost (the title is already spoiling it, really).



Mishka is a musician, and ironically plays a piece of music about Orpheus on multiple occasions. He's also looking for his Lebanese father, which brings him into a world of terrorism. His girlfriend sets out to find him and bring him back. Sounds familiar huh?



The book has a lot of different setting, America (multiple places), Middle East and Australia. The switching between the places/times got me a bit out of the flow of the book. The story itself was quite interesting and I did like the writing, although it was at times a bit slow.

[bhowell_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a literate thriller which truly will keep you reading until the wee hours of the night. Leela meets and falls in love with Mishka, both students in Boston. Mishka has a mysterious past but Leela's own past in a small southern town arrives to haunt her. Admidst a terrorist attack and post 9/11 paranoia the story is a whirlwind of passion and betrayal which matches the brilliance of her previous novel, 'Due Preparations for the Plague'.

[scrabblenut · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I could not put this book down from the first page. Her writing is magical. The book involves music and math, terrorism and love. The story is heartbreaking yet uplifting. Highly recommended.

[ros0peters · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very cleverly constructed novel. Weaves the lives of 3 characters and 3 locations into a suspense novel that somehow makes sense without being too contrived. I found it a page turner would now like to read other novels by this author.

[mojomomma_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about how people deal with desperation. Leela and Mishka fall in love during a time when Boston is undergoing some suicide bombing incidents. Mishka finds out the father he thought had died before he was born is in fact alive in Lebanon and is an admired figure among right-wing Islamic extremists. During a trip to Beirut he and his father are "picked up" for interrogation by a private out-sourced military contractor, who just happens to have grown up with Leela back in South Carolina. It's hard to describe and parts of this book are hard to read, but its really a compelling story.