Between Two Sounds

About this book

Winner of NPR Best Books of 2024 Top Ten List, 2025 American Library Association Best Graphic Novels for Adults Gold Medal, 2024 PubWest Book Design Award Gold Medal, 2025 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) Gold Medal, 2025 IBPA Book Awards Between Two Sounds follows the life of world-famous composer Arvo Pärt from his birth in Estonia in 1935 through 1980, when the Soviets forced him to emigrate because of the nonconformist and religious nature of his music. Based on years of research and close collaboration with Arvo Pärt himself, Joonas Sildre paints an atmospheric portrait of a restless artist who does not shy away from confronting state control or his own internal contradictions. Arvo Pärt stormed Soviet-occupied Estonia's music scene in the 1960s as a brash young man pushing the limits of avant-garde modernism. Then he fell silent, no longer able to express what he felt through the musical language he had inherited. When he reemerged a decade later, he had found, in that silence between sounds, a new musical language inspired by ancient sacred music, the basis of his distinctive tintinnabuli technique. This graphic novel will appeal not just to fans of Arvo Pärt's music but to anyone who has known the struggle to remain true to oneself whatever the cost.