<DIV>Could one of the greatest musicians of all time live his life in a peasant village and never be discovered by the world? Set against the mystical and bizarre backdrop of a remote Alpine village in the early nineteenth century, this astounding novel tells the story of Elias Johannes Alder, a musical genius with supernatural hearing who develops his talent in secret midnight sessions at the church organ. In the face of devastating fires and other strange occurrences, the villagers seethe with concealed hostility towards God, who sends nothing but trouble; while Elias wages his own battle with a God who not only denies him Elsbeth, the woman he loves, but confers upon him a gift he can neither fulfill nor understand.</div>