When Your Song Breaks the Silence

As a small child Franz Schubert discovers the magic of sound. He soon realizes his gift for putting sound patterns together to make glorious music. But he is shy and self-deprecating; his pieces are appreciated by his many devoted friends and musical colleagues who perform them mainly in their homes, but he is able to publish almost none of them. As he works tirelessly, we are privy to his creative fervor as well as his anguish and self-doubt.

Against the backdrop of the Congress of Vienna and Metternich’s police state, Schubert works and socializes with his many devoted friends and lovers in Vienna, all actual people. He makes two trips to Hungary to teach the daughters of a minor nobleman. This is his first time outside the city and his immersion in nature inspires some of his best-known songs.

But Schubert has contracted a terrible illness from a male prostitute which slowly but steadily progresses. In the moving last chapter his family and friends gather around his deathbed as he reflects on his life and prepares to die: “…his life was music, all of it was only a pattern, a phrase in the song that God was singing. He had only tried to write down a little of that song, find a few of the patterns that made up Eternity.”

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Editorial Reviews:

"Jacobs’ historical novel details the life of Franz Schubert.

"Published posthumously by the parents of debut author Jacobs, the novel imagines the Austrian composer’s life. Schubert is a miserable school teacher who has always loved the patterns of music, however, he cannot bring himself to leave teaching, disappoint his family and compose full time. But he’s soon befriended by the decadent Schober, a law student who believes Schubert’s only responsibilities should be to his divinely inspired compositions. Schubert tries to dismiss these indulgent ideas but strikes up a love affair with Schober, marking the beginning of gay pinings which will color the rest of the composer’s life, including his physical demise. The novel propels itself on the tensions of love and success, as Schubert’s compositions gain him recognition but never the fulfilling career he desires. Meanwhile, his various relations with both men and women continue to hinder and fascinate him, up until his early death. A thoughtfully drawn portrait of Schubert’s interior world adds depth to a straightforward story...The novel’s most lovely passages occur when Schubert hears music—his own songs performed, a stirring composition in his mind, or the work of the haunting master Beethoven. The author writes about Schubert’s musicality with grace and serious compassion. An air of mystery is added when Jacobs’ parents reveal in the afterword that no one suspected her to have such a natural affinity with Franz Schubert; her dreamy portrait of the composer confirms a deep connection.

"Fans of historical fiction may especially appreciate this entertaining recreation of Schubert’s life; familiarity with the composer and his music is not a prerequisite."

-Kirkus Reviews

"I have to say that once I started the book, I couldn't put it down.

Natalie was a very gifted writer. The prose is beautifully rendered,

the portrait of Schubert and his contemporaries utterly convincing

without seeming too heavily researched, the story of his inner life

compelling. Surely, if Natalie had lived, she would have found editors who would be thrilled to publish her work."

-Eileen Pollack

Former Zell Director, MFA Program in Creative Writing

Department of English, University of Michigan

Award-winning author of Breaking and Entering