Maxim Arnautov lived to be ninety-two years old, wrote twelve symphonies and scores for dozens of films, and received every possible award—yet he gave almost no interviews and left no memoirs. His only opera was banned the day before its premiere. His music was performed in Europe but hushed up in the USSR. He had no children—except for those no one knew about. This novel, through forty obituaries, reconstructs the biography of a man who carefully concealed it.