Us Conductors

by Seanid  Michaels

This  book just won the Giller Prize.  It is the story of the life of Leon Termin, the inventor of the strange musical instrument called the Theremin.  It takes us from his life as a scientist in Leningrad to a glamourous life in the United States where he is 1)trying to sell his invention to a big company.  His vision is to have a theremin in every home in America.  2)he is conducting spying activities on behalf of the Soviet Union and has a minder who tells him who to see and what to do.

It was a well researched story.  It was interesting to learn more about his life.  I know of the theremin but didn't realize that he had actually trained people to play it and had concerts in Europe and the U.S.  While he was in the U.S. he mixed with the rich and famous.  At some point we learn that he is basically broke.  We never find out what happened to his money.  Did he not make any or did his minder waste it somehow?

One of his friends becomes his patron and offers him an apartment in his building in return for teaching his wife to play the theremin.
Termin married a woman in Russia and brought her to the U.S. She lived in New Jersey, they didn't really see much of each other and eventually they divorce.  He carries on an affair with another woman even before he is divorced.

The good life is suddenly over, Theremin is scooped up and sent back to Russia, locked into a room on a freighter on his way back.  He is sentenced as a traitor and tortured in the prisons.  He doesn't believe he has done anything wrong but eventually confesses just to get the tortures to stop.  He eventually is released and remarries.

He seemed to be a brilliant man, it seemed puzzling that the Russian's would waste his brilliance by locking him up.