Hammerklavier, the first novel by the internationally acclaimed playwright Yasmina Reza, became an instant bestseller on its publication in France. Narrated in the main by the author herself, Hammerklavier opens with a description of her dead father failing to play Beethoven on the self-same instrument and suffering admonishment from the maestro himself in a bizarre encounter in heaven. A series of forty-four autobiographical and fictional vignettes ensue in which the narrator's memories and fantasies of people - real and imagined - combine to stunning effect.