What a spectacularly creative novel. Nell Stevens’s historical fiction centers on a tumultuous year in the lives of two pretty famous people: George Sand and Frédéric Chopin. In the early 1800s, the lovers absconded to Mallorca seeking “curative sea air” for the ever-sickly composer and Sand’s son. What makes the book delightful and unique is that our narrator is the ghost of a fourteen-year-old girl who died four hundred years prior to the ragtag crew taking up temporary residence in the monastery where she died.

I am not well-versed in the history of Romantic era writers or classical composers, but you needn’t be to enjoy this read. George Sand is such a distinctive person — a feminist and rebel and dotting mother — which gave Stevens much to work with. The book’s narrator, Blanca, is an exceptionally shrewd device for providing commentary and insight throughout. She can “inhabit” the bodies of living people and share their sensory experiences while also mining their memories. The novel darts between the various characters giving the story a real emotional depth even as the plot is fairly simple.

Beyond being an inventive work, Stevens has a real deftness with words. I wrote down several excerpts, floored by the poetic, playful perceptiveness. The book is rich with descriptive language of both the setting and the characters’ inner lives. Consider this early passage from Blanca:

If I were a historical fiction writer, this book would be the sort I’d strive to emulate. Reading it was such an unexpected pleasure.