In this mysterious and haunting novel of eighteenth-century Vienna Brian O'Doherty takes the reader from the hushed clinic of the controversial physician Dr Franz Anton Mesmer to the glittering and scheming Habsburg court of Maria Theresa of Austria. It is a book of music, psychology and history, a fictional account of Dr Mesmer, celebrated for his discovery of animal magnetism, which proved effective in the cure of many illnesses. The doctor has just taken on a new patient, 18 year old Marie Therese Paradies, blind since the age of 3. A gifted pianist, she is protected by the patronage of the Empress for whom she plays at court....