The Unicorn SonataOn a hot summer day in Los Angeles, thirteen-year-old Josephine "Joey" Rivera - a misfit in junior high school but a born musician - meets a disquieting young man named Indigo who plays ghostly, haunting music on a horn the hue of a conch shell. The sound of his music stays with her, distant and beguiling, until she follows it down an ordinary street and across an unseen border into a magical world called Shei'rah. There, satyrs, water nymphs, and six-inch-long dragons live side by side with phoenixes and two-headed serpents and the Eldest - the unicorns whose music is the soul of Shei'rah. There are dangers, too - from swarms of tiny, terrible flying creatures called perytons, and from a strange disease that is blinding the Eldest. To Joey, Shei'rah feels like home - but she already has a home across the Border, in our world. She has school and a family and a feisty, beloved grandmother, Abuelita, whom she visits every Sunday in a nursing home. There's also gruff old John Papas, whose dusty instrument-repair shop Joey cleans in exchange for music lessons, and who may know something about the Eldest himself. Within these two worlds whose borders merge mysteriously, Peter S. Beagle spins a tale of one girl who can make a difference. The Unicorn Sonata also tells us that our true home is often right around the corner, if we'd only open our eyes - and our ears - to find it. |
Common terms and phrases
Abuelita answered asked black unicorn breath brook-jalla close criyaqui cross the Border dark daughter dream Eldest eyes face faraway feel Fina Fireez freeway gold gone grandmother hair hand Harold and Maude head hear heard Indigo jakhao Janet Berliner Joey had never Joey looked Joey realized Joey saw Joey whispered Joey's John Papas John Papas's Josephine Angelina Rivera Josephine Rivera karkadann knew Ko's Las Perlas laughed listen live Lord Sinti moon moved music of Shei'rah neck night nodded Okay Outworlder ouzo Papas Music Perlas perytons playing Princess Lisha remember river-jalla San Diego Freeway satyr seemed shadow shendi shook shoulders Silver Pines silver-blue horn slowly smelled smile sound stared stood stopped street suddenly Sundown Wood talk tell thing tirujai told took Touriq unicorn colt Unicorn Sonata voice wait walked watching Woodmont young unicorns