$12 off The Conductor of Illusions Book

Alexis Kandilis is an international conductor at the height of his profession. He receives standing ovations at every concert and wildly enthusiastic reviews from the media. Yet, on a personal level he is deeply unfulfilled. Mahler’s haunting "Song on the Death of Children" plays over and over in his mind, bringing back ugly childhood memories he can’t erase.

A strange collection of not-quite-true friends and not really beloved family surrounds him: his mother, Clio, who forced him to abandon his dreams of composing for a more prestigious career as a conductor; his wife, Charlotte, whom he despises and frequently betrays; his bisexual friends Pavlina and Tatiana; Sacha, a young and talented Russian flutist; and Ted, his agent, who has booked—or overbooked—him for the next three seasons. They all provide some measure of reassurance, but it is easy to predict that Kandilis’s glorious world will soon shatter.