The author of this book, Hilary Custance Green, sent me a copy to review and one of the reasons she thought I might be interested in reading it, is the fact that the main character, Luca, is an opera singer, and a tenor to boot. So yes, she was right and I opened it up pretty much as soon as it arrived and soon became totally absorbed.
The story starts with Luca buried in the rubble of a collapsed building. He is trapped and panicky and is very relived to hear another voice nearby, that of a young girl, who manages to crawl across to him. Her name is Heloise and they begin to talk in the darkness, each helping the other to keep the fears at bay. 'I thought I wouldn't mind dying and I don't want dust and glass and thirst with my death". So Luca starts to sing, very gently 'Oh cosi tetre immagini dal tuo pensier discaccia (Oh cast these darkest imagining out of your thoughts) from Il Corsaro by Verdi'. At this stage the book was abandoned for a few minutes while I rummaged in my CD collection, found my recording with the gloriously young and golden voiced Jose Carreras and put it on and played this aria.
Luca wakes up in hospital. He has been badly hurt and his first thought is to ask for Heloise. She cannot be found. She is not in hospital, her name is not listed anywhere and, as he has had an operation on his skull, his queries and later frantic questioning are not believed. He knows she was real but nobody else does.
As the weeks and months go by and Luca recovers and his burgeoning career begins to take off he has to reluctantly try to forget Heloise as it seems he will never find her. And then one day when in an art gallery in Rome he finds her. It is her voice he recognises and his vision of her does not match up to the reality. "late twenties perhaps? Not much to look at: shapeless, dark hair, enveloping clothes. Ruth spoke 'Let me do that I want to feel the sun'.......everything about her alien to his dreams - except the voice"
Luca is a rather self absorbed opera singer (this is usually true, particularly of tenors. I have met a few and been married to one so believe me, I know...) and prior to his incarceration in the collapsed building, had been used to having women falling over themselves to be with him. He had conjured up a picture of Heloise and to find the reality so different to his imaginings is a shock. Not only is he angry with her for avoiding him and making no attempt at contact since they were together, he discovers that she has a secret she has also kept hidden.
Unseen Unsung tells of the growing relationship between Luca and Ruth/Heloise, tentative at first and just as friends as she is so different from Luca's previous female companions, but then slowly a love grows and this is what makes the book so absorbing. I am not going to give away the ending or the twists and turns of their story, but will add that I, personally, found this book even more interesting because of the operatic references. I would hazard a guess that the author enjoys early Verdi opera as there ismention not only of Il Corsaro, but also I Lombardi and a description of the heavenly off stage tenor solo towards the end of the opera which I remember so well hearing at Covent Garden (Carreras again). However, please don't think you need to be an opera lover to enjoy this book, it stands on its own merits and I very much look forward to a second one from HIlary in the not too distant future.
