And is it possible to find our way back to them? These pressing questions drive Nadia Beard on a quest to reclaim the dreams of her childhood for her adult self.

Many, if not most of us, set aside the pursuits of youth once the reality of working life sets in, leaving the joys and skills of those days far in our slipstream.

'Compelling . . . She has taught her readers how to withstand the wrong notes even as we find the melodies that sustain us' Financial Times

How do we lose touch with the things we love? And is it possible to find our way back to them? These pressing questions drive Nadia Beard on a quest to reclaim the dreams of her childhood for her adult self.

Many, if not most of us, set aside the pursuits of youth once the reality of working life sets in, leaving the joys and skills of those days far in our slipstream. The Melody of Things depicts what coming back to those early loves entails, as Beard uproots her life to return to study the piano, years after she had stopped playing as a teenager.

Beard explores the pleasures, frustrations and revelations of re-dedicating herself to the instrument as an amateur. Her story is an invitation: to seek out the restorative power waiting to be discovered in the pieces of ourselves we have, perhaps unknowingly, lost to time.