Character Interview: Kate Mueser interviews Sarah Johnson of The Girl with Twenty Fingers
Character Interview: Kate Mueser interviews Sarah Johnson of The Girl with Twenty Fingers
Sarah Johnson’s hope of becoming a concert pianist was shattered when she bombed an important performance of a Mozart concerto. Now in Munich, she feels like an imposter in her job as a food magazine editor. A chance encounter in a music shop leads to a surprising friendship with an elderly widower with a unique grand piano. When they start meeting to play Mozart’s works for four hands, Sarah unravels the mysteries of his war-time past, uproots a musical secret in her own family — and finds the strength to redirect her own future.
Laced with melodies from Mozart and Schumann to Toto and Nena, The Girl with Twenty Fingers will delight readers, while asking the question: Can music change lives? Kate Mueser’s debut novel cracks open notions of failure and second chances, living to the fullest and dying without regrets, and cultural identity and privilege, making it both timeless and urgently relevant to our age.
Kate Mueser Interviews Sarah Johnson
I almost didn’t recognize her there, Sarah Johnson, in front of that old hole-in-the-wall music shop on a side street in downtown Munich. But beneath her winter hat and scarf, she had the ever-present afterglow of a performer, as if stages left stains. There was something about the way she carried her shoulders, the straightness of her spine, that belied the time she’d spent in front of audiences. So I stopped to talk with her for a moment.
Me: What do you think, Sarah, are you going to go inside?
Sarah: I’ve only been in there once, you know, and it changed my life, even though he didn’t have the score I was looking for.
Me: Where would you be now if Franz the shop owner had sold you the score to Mozart’s D Minor Piano Concerto right there on the spot?
Sarah: I wonder that, too. But I think Herr Steinmann would probably say it’s not worth asking hypothetical questions.
Me: You’re right, he would. But he’s not here, so I have another hypothetical question. Would you have forgiven Mozart if you hadn’t met Herr Steinmann?
Sarah: Eventually, perhaps, in some other music shop, in some other city. But I came to realize that Mozart is dirt. I mean, literally speaking. He doesn’t give a damn what I think about him. And he never meant any harm. Probably not, at least.
Me: Like Theo?
Sarah: You mean, he’s dirt, or doesn’t care what I think of him? Possibly both.
Me: You know, a lot of the people who read The Girl with Twenty Fingers ask me why you ever dated him in the first place.
Sarah: (grunts) They do? Have they all seriously never dated the wrong person? It’s one of those things everyone should do at least once in life — like smoking a cigar or eating Leberwurst — because doing it makes you not do it again. I find it hard to believe that so many people meet the right person and live happily ever after without having to figure out what makes the right person the right person.
Me: So Christoph is Mr. Right?
Sarah: He lets me lick the milk foam from the bottom of his cappuccino cup. If that isn’t true love, then…
Me: But do you think your true love is strong enough to withstand the Big Apple?
Sarah: New York can be nasty. But doesn’t that make it more romantic?
Me: In a way, I suppose. Come on, it’s cold out here. Don’t you want to go inside and browse the scores? Please pick something other than Mozart this time. Aren’t you going to need something new to play on the Bechstein?
Sarah: I won’t have much room left in my suitcase. But maybe you’re right: I could use some music. New music; no Mozart. I think this time I’ll surprise Franz and ask for Jelly Roll Morton.
Me: I can’t wait to see the look on his face. Then again, if he knew Herr Steinmann at all, he won’t blink an eye.
BIO
Kate Mueser was going to become a concert pianist, but instead became a bilingual storyteller with a penchant for music. She spent over a decade working for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, where she reported and presented an award-winning documentary feature on the future of the book and hosted a TV show on German pop music, her own web video series, and a youth radio show. Kate holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from Indiana University and a Masters Degree in Modern European Studies from Columbia University.
A California native, she has spent nearly her entire adult life in Germany and now lives with her husband and three children in Munich. The Girl with Twenty Fingers is Kate’s debut novel. It was was largely written while during her toddler’s naps, while pregnant with twins.
Twitter https://twitter.com/katemueser
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/kate-mueser
YouTube https://youtube.com/@KateMueser
Buy here:
Direct https://www.blackwaterpress.com/product/the-girl-with-twenty-fingers/
Amazon US https://a.co/d/3p8s15G
Amazon UK https://amzn.eu/d/bvzQAmA
Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-girl-with-twenty-fingers-kate-mueser/19038729
Category: Interviews, On Writing
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