Quartet for the End of Time : On Music, Grief and Birdsong

`Wonderful' Spectator`This is a remarkable book' TLSA personal reckoning with grief, doubt, faith and poetry set to one of the most celebrated musical works of the twentieth century, from the award-winning poet and librettist. Strange, ecstatic and apocalyptic - listeners of Olivier Messiaen's masterpiece, Quartet for the End of Time, have been captivated by its music and mythology since the first extraordinary performance in a prisoner of war camp in 1941. After discovering his music by chance as a teenager, Michael Symmons Roberts's own fascination with the Quartet leads him on a quest to understand its enigmatic power. What follows is a moving, unforgettable exploration of grief, of personal faith and doubt, of the end of time and what may lie beyond it. `A rich, lively, profound book' Rowan Williams`An outstanding writer' Sunday Times