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Crescendo
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Crescendo

By: Jane Healey
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A taut, sultry novel about rivalry, obsession and how far we are willing to go to get what we truly desire.

It’s the summer of 1957 and Max, a piano prodigy, is on a sold-out concert tour.


His beautiful twin sister, Natasha, serves as his manager and minder. But despite Natasha’s careful planning, he begins, for the first time in his career, to make mistakes on stage. Upending his schedule to seek a cure in Paris, Max sets up the pair in the sprawling mansion of a handsome and wealthy count. But Henri is more than just a patron of the arts; he has also been – unknown to Max – Natasha’s lover.
Freed from the familiar dynamic of manager and talent, Natasha’s simmering resentment and Max’s deep insecurity turn into a rivalry, as the two vie for Henri’s attention. While Henri woos Natasha in galleries and cafés during the day, it is Max’s playing that draws him from bed each night.
As the twins compete, the fractures in their already vulnerable relationship start to show, with devastating consequences for both.


'I couldn’t tear myself away' ERIN KELLY
'An enthralling literary symphony of ambition, desire and obsession' LAYNE FARGO

© Jane Healey 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 20th Century Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

An enthralling literary symphony of ambition, desire, and obsession, Jane Healey’s Crescendo captures the creative and destructive power of art with prose so immersive you’ll feel like you’re watching an Oscar-worthy film play in your head (Layne Fargo, author of THE FAVOURITES)
An enormous pleasure to read – a thrilling, claustrophobic, passionate study of ambition, neurosis and desire that really sucked me in. And I loved the setting too, it made me want to go on holiday somewhere glamorous so the view matched the writing (Bridget Collins, author of THE NAKED LIGHT)
I couldn’t tear myself away from this captivating, heady novel that draws a taut string between the needs of the flesh and the demands of art. The literary love triangle between Max, Natasha and Henri joins the exalted ranks of The Great Gatsby and Brideshead Revisited (Erin Kelly, author of THE SKELETON KEY)
A riveting study in pressure - artistic, romantic, and familial - set within the rarefied world of 1950s French concert halls and ballet. Jane Healey renders ambition and rivalry with remarkable psychological acuity, illuminating the quiet compromises and irreversible choices that shape a life devoted to genius (Lara Prescott, author of THE SECRETS WE KEPT)
This stylish, passionate novel transports you to the gilded salons and concert halls of 1950s Paris, with two gorgeous twins, a count, and a dancer who each make big moves and mistakes for love. But the book's greatest question revolves around genius - how to grow it, to keep it, to not lose everything for its sake - and every page in Crescendo builds to its haunting and resounding answer (Maria Hummel, author of STILL LIVES)
Phenomenal and compulsive, a simmering tale of sibling rivalry and the heady world of classical music. It is really a love story, a love of music, a love of siblings, a love of life. The prose was tender, sexy even and most importantly precise: as accomplished as a virtuoso pianist playing a sonata. I found the ending unexpected and bruising. Terrific (Molly Aitken, author of BRIGHT I BURN)
A delicious unravelling of complicated siblings in the most sumptuous of settings, I devoured it (Anna Bailey, author of OUR LAST WILD DAYS)
A heady and intoxicating tale of rivalry and obsession, talent and envy, desire and destruction – Crescendo set me ablaze (Kat Dunn, author of HUNGERSTONE)
Sumptuous and intoxicating, a ravishing novel of gilded lives, classical music, artistic obsession, and the destructive pull of sibling rivalry - a perfect summer read (Rachel Blackmore, author of COSTANZA)
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