ABOUT
THE BOOK

Could the greatest musician of all time live his life in a remote peasant village and never be discovered by the world? Set against the backdrop of an Alpine village in the 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.

A spiritual descendant of Patrick Süskind’s Perfume and translated into twenty-four languages, Brother of Sleep moves inexorably toward tragedy as Elias is undone by his intense feeling for Elsbeth, the woman he loves. In this shocking and beguiling novel, Robert Schneider has created a world that is utterly seductive and wholly original.

Original title in German Schlafes Bruder published by Reclam-Verlag (1992)