The Instrumentalist

The Instrumentalist is a complex, nuanced fictionalized historical novel by Harriet Constable about the real-life Anna Maria della Pietà. Released 20th Aug 2024 by Simon & Schuster, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in third quarter 2025 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a well written novel, engaging, and with sometimes luminous prose. The probable origin of Anna Marie, her upbringing, her discovery of music, and he notice and education by music maestro Antonio Vivaldi, all follow current accepted research. The author makes bold departures in her characterizations, endowing 8 year old Anna Marie with a surety and hubris (she knows she's destined for greatness from infancy) which surely were at vast odds with the reality of the time period and culture. Many of the secondary characters seem sketched in, vague outlines instead of believable living people with internal motivations and desires.

It's undeniably well written. There's not much there, however, to engage fanatical Vivaldi (or Anna Maria della Pietà) fans, or lovers of period music, or Venice, but if readers think of it less as a factual historical retelling, and more as a historical novel about Venice and music of the Baroque period written around a very loose framework of real history, it reads and engages much more easily. 

Three and a half stars. It's a promising debut. It would make a good choice for public library acquisition, home readers, and possibly book club discussion. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.