Truth, Martyrdom, And Shostakovich (Richard Taruskin Takes On Julian Barnes’s Novel)

“This book, I think, is a beautifully written botch, and it has me wondering anew about truth. People have been doing that, of course, for a long time – at least since Pilate confronted Christ. And the wrangling over what the truth might be about Shostakovich and his experiences under Stalin has been going on, it sometimes seems, almost as long.”