A Life Half Lived

A novel about the life of Constanze Mozart - an absorbing account based on detailed research.

In retrospect, there are many who might envy her: imagining that it must have been fascinating to share the life of a man who was to become the most venerated musical genius ever to have lived. In retrospect, there are also many who might hate her because they think she must have had a detrimental influence on this much loved genius. This envy and hatred have distorted the image we have of Constanze Mozart.

But who was she really, the woman who married Mozart at the age of twenty and then lost him a mere nine years later? The woman who took on an unprepossessing musician with questionable manners who was out of touch with reality to an alarming extent. The woman who survived six pregnancies in a hundred months of matrimony and saw four of her children die. But also the woman who was able to share Mozart's light hearted approach to life, admidst all their worries.

Rather than reurgitating the rumours, Lea Singer's well-researched novel recounts Constanze Mozart's life in a vivid and lively manner.