The Metropolis Case: A Novel

From the smoky music halls of 1860s Paris to the tumbling skyscrapers of twenty-first-century New York, a sweeping tale of passion, music, and the human heart's yearning forconnection

Martin is a forty-year-old lawyer who, despite his success, feels disoriented and disconnected from his life in post-9/11 Manhattan. But even as he comes to terms with the misstepsof his past, he questions whether his life will feel more genuine going forward.

Decades earlier, in the New York of the 1960s, Anna is destined to be a grande dame of the international stage.As she steps into the spotlight, however, she realizes that the harsh glare of fame may be more than she bargained for.

Maria is a tall, awkward, ostracized teenager desperate to break freefrom the doldrums of 1970s Pittsburgh. When the operatic power of her extraordinary voice leads Maria to Juilliard, New York seems to hold possibilities that are both exhilarating anduncertain.

Lucien is a young Parisian at the birth of the modern era, racing through the streets of Europe in an exuberant bid to become a singer for the ages. When tragedy leads him to amagical discovery, Lucien embarks on a journey that will help him--and Martin, Maria, and Anna--learn that it's not how many breaths you take, it's what you do with thoseyou're given.

This unlikely quartet is bound together across centuries and continents by the strange and spectacular history of Richard Wagner's masterpiece operaTristan and Isolde. Grandly operatic in scale, their story is one of music and magic, love and death, betrayal and fate. Matthew Gallaway's riveting debut will have readers spellbound from theopening page to its breathtaking conclusion.

From the Hardcover edition.

A story set in nineteenth-century Europe, 1970s Pittsburgh, and present-day New York City follows the experiences of three people for whom Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" becomes a focal point of their lives.

MATTHEW GALLAWAY is a first-time novelist originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He now lives in New York City.

From the Hardcover edition.