Greystone Books UK scoops Schubert Treatment by Parisian cellist and art therapist Claire Oppert

Greystone Books UK has scooped The Schubert Treatment: A Story of Music and Healing by Parisian cellist and art therapist Claire Oppert, translated by Katia Grubisic.

Greystone publisher Jen Gauthier acquired world English rights from the French publisher Denoël — an imprint of Gallimard — for an undisclosed sum. The book will be published in hardback on 7th November 2024, and it is already a Prix Littéraire des Musiciens winner.

"The Schubert Treatment is acclaimed cellist Claire Oppert’s profoundly affecting account of her life playing for, and finding she could lighten the suffering of, patients with autism, neurodegenerative disease and terminal illness," the synopsis says. "Oppert’s crystalline, lyrical vignettes of the patients whose lives she has touched are punctuated with anecdotes from her own life as a musician, as well as reflections on the meaning of art and the human need for connection and creativity."

Andrew Furlow, the head of Greystone Books UK, said: "Claire Oppert’s remarkably uplifting book is an incredibly powerful testament not just to music’s ineffable powers of calm and healing but witness to its real, measurable painkilling benefits... Oppert is a deft storyteller as well as a supremely talented cellist and therapist and we’re greatly looking forward to her story reaching, and perhaps helping, many thousands more people."

Oppert added: "I’m thrilled that my book The Schubert Treatment will soon be published in English. Greystone Books has an exceptional sensibility and unwavering professionalism, and I couldn’t think of a better partner to continue to share my experience."