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The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic leads to the cancellation of a renowned quartet’s planned performance of Schubert’s Quintet in C. But the group continues to practice, in hopes of at least an eventual private performance, and in an effort to draw the musicians closer together and improve their music-making, Boris – the group’s founder and cellist – asks each of them to keep and share diary entries, from which he’ll choose a daily entry as a record of the journey they are making together, and yet apart.
So begins Plague Year, the latest novel by Hamilton writer Peter Abbot. Written as a series of diary entries and emails, Plague Year affords an intimate glimpse into the impact of a global pandemic at a personal level. The result is a poignant chronicle of a world-altering event as reflected in miniature in everyday life, written with grace and empathy.
A sample from Chapter One …
Friday 3rd April 2020 / JENNY
I’m surprised that the newspaper is still being delivered. I must try to thank the newsboy - if I talk to him from this side of the front-door, surely I would be far enough away, but maybe I shouldn’t give him a tip - they say that type of physical contact could transmit the virus or whatever it is - but at least I could say Thank You at arm’s length, surely? I wonder when he delivers the newspaper? Probably too early for me to get to the front-door, maybe I should pin a thank-you note to the screen-door? But if he stops delivery, I wouldn’t really miss it - the CBC News on the radio is enough, more than enough, these days, I think! In fact, there’s a lot of things that clutter one’s life which, I confess, I wouldn’t really miss.
But what a shock when I did read the newspaper - I saw the main headline, We’re in a race against time , so then I read, in the end, almost everything there - and as I say, what a shock to see how the whole COVID-19 situation, here in Hamilton, is much much more serious than I knew. That disturbed me all day on and off - I could hardly concentrate on what I was reading - and then on TV in the evening, the news under the screen had this: 80K COVID-19 CASES IN ONT. BY APRIL 30 - and in the American news in the CBC newscast, Trump orders US Company to stop exporting masks to Canada - just when it seems wearing a mask - I haven’t got one - is likely to become mandatory even in the supermarket. As I say, all a shock to me, and no doubt to many Canadians.
And it’s a real pity about the Schubert Quintet, I was really looking forward to that - the rehearsals and the three performances - they’re such a good Quartet, one of the best, otherwise they wouldn’t be in such demand to go on tours in Europe as well as Canada. I was lucky to be invited because they needed an extra cello for the Schubert - which I love! It was Anna who arranged the invitation, I think - she has played Second Violin in the Quartet for quite a few years, and I know that Boris, who started it after he came to Canada with his parents, all those years ago - they were refugees, I think - has said how much he admires her playing, he told me that - I had a sort of interview with him, he’s an old man and he did make some strange comments, I thought - Anna said he had been a refugee from I think she said Hungary and came to Canada as a boy or young man, with his parents who had been members of a major orchestra. He has a strong accent! But I had no problem understanding him. He’s tough, I think, and of course he has very high standards. I played movements from Bach, the third cello suite, which I have always loved, and he grunted and said I’d do .
