A partita is a musical composition, often for a soloist. As Livia, the protagonist of Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, explains to Sigurd, as they begin an all-consuming romance, it’s “made up of a lot of parts with different paces and moods. […] The parts are all different, and the artist’s work is to make them all add up to something that feels whole.”
Livia is just 20 at Indiana University, far from home, on a prestigious music scholarship. Distracted by the pursuit of excellence and the perfect love, she does not yet know that her life will be a partita, one she must make whole.
