Enthralling, passionate, vivid. The Instrumentalist is a marvel

KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of The Heresies and The Dance Tree

A compassionate coming-of-age tale, inspired by true events, explores youthful ambition and the allure of fame … Constable understands the power music has to sustain us … Compelling, vividly described, magic

OBSERVER

An engrossing tale about an unexpected coup de musique, and a vivid and nuanced portrait of a groundbreaking woman … Constable fills in the gaps, giving this remarkable figure the kind of origin story that has rarely been afforded by history to female artists

NEW YORK TIMES

Constable infuses historical fact with richly wrought fictional details, to investigate admiration and resentment, ego and legacy ... While the book is steeped in time and place, it nonetheless sheds light on gender dynamics that will be all too familiar to readers today

i paper

This novel about music is fundamentally about silence; the myriad ways in which female authorship has been erased … a captivating narrative that's as tightly tuned as a thriller... A heartening tribute to a group of formidable women

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Harriet Constable's impressive debut novel conjures up the tumultuous life of Venice in the early years of the 18th century in vivid detail … Constable succeeds in telling an absorbing story of musical rivalry and ambition, and rescuing an unjustly forgotten woman of genius from history's dustbin

SUNDAY TIMES, Best historical fiction