He pulls the man off his daughter and, enraged and aroused, rapes her. James heads to New York, storms into Kathleen’s apartment, and finds her making love to a Black man.

Months later, James receives an anonymous letter saying that Kathleen was engaging in reckless living. However, when he returns impacted by what he has witnessed, he cannot shake his obsession with Kathleen. James is certain she has a future in opera.įearing that his sexual interest in his daughter might be dangerous, James volunteers to serve overseas in World War I. Despite having three additional daughters (Mercedes, Frances, and Lily, who dies of crib death-now known as sudden infant death syndrome), James fixates on Kathleen, who develops a remarkable talent for singing. Materia suspects James’s obsession might be toxic. When Materia delivers their first child, Kathleen, James loses interest in his wife and dotes on the baby girl. They elope, incurring the wrath of Materia’s conservative Lebanese family. He meets 13-year-old Materia Mahmoud while tuning her family’s piano.

In addition, it depicts incidents of racial intolerance and bigotry, anti-gay bias, and the effects of drug and alcohol addiction.Īt the turn of the 20th century, James Piper, a self-taught piano tuner, arrives on the remote island of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia certain he can make a good living. It also details pedophilia, sexual assault, incest, and rape. This study guide references the 2005 Touchstone paperback edition.Ĭontent Warning: The novel contains graphic depictions of violence, including combat, death by suicide, and medical trauma. In 2015, the novel was adapted into a four-part television miniseries by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Six years after its publication, the novel found renewed popularity when it was selected by Oprah’s Book Club. In addition, it was shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize, awarded annually for the best book released by a Canadian publisher.

It earned the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Novel, as well as the Canadian Writers Association Prize for Best Novel. The novel was an immediate sensation and became an international best-seller translated into more than 20 languages.

Sing you home summary