The Ensemble

matter how hard she tried, Beethoven would not join them together.

Daniel was thinking of mechanics, too, though not in the same way. He was thinking that he d chosen a career that should have been conquerable because the mechanics of it could be learned. And he d learned so much, was so much older than the rest of them, and wanted it so bad, had nothing to fall back on yet here he was, still sweating and struggling through the Serioso. No one worked as hard as him. But he saw now that was because they didn t have to. Jana s high, clear playing was curated to perfection, Brit played evenly and subtly, and Henry hadn t made a single misstep, not even in rehearsal, in the entire time Daniel had known him. He became angry in such a way that not for the first time in his life he saw no way out of it.

During the third movement, Henry watched Daniel fully settling into his anger, an anger that seemed greater than their unison minuet. Henry saw everything, but he did not react. Perhaps that was the real mistake that night, Henry not trying to do something to show Daniel that it was okay, because that was the moment where everything began to unravel. But what was there to do to temper Daniel s anger? It ran as an undercurrent to the relentlessness and speed of this third movement, jumping note to note, cutting the edges more sharply, speeding up what was already a too-fast tempo set by Jana. But Henry didn t do anything to stop it. He didn t feel it was vital.

Jana would later take the blame for starting the fourth movement a tad too fast, but she would also blame Brit for failing to take her cue to slow down in the rubato, and Henry for taking the speed as a chance to make a wild, embarrassing show of his supporting voice, and Da

Ensemble is set in the world of classical music (so, yes, this is a good book for all you Mozart in the Jungle fans) and tracks the way the friends, who comprise the Van Ness Quartet, navigate their youthful inexperience, riotous success, professional failures, and all of the other things that come with sky-rocketing ambition and a reliance on other people."  Nylon

"I fell so hard for the four friends in Aja Gabel s debut novel, which follows a young, ambitious string quartet as they try to sort out their complicated relationships to music and each other. The last time I wanted characters to be real this badly or, you know, felt like they were was when Lauren Groff s Fate and Furies came out. The Ensemble is about desire, disappointment and success, betrayal and loyalty, and the ways that our friendships shape the people we become. You won t be able to quit these characters."  goop

"Stunningly resonant... With remarkable assurance, Gabel takes the four [characters] through their shaky early performances and expertly ties their individual and collective lives together with generous doses of empathy... A virtuoso performance."  Booklist (STARRED review)

"Gabel explores friendship and art with great warmth, humanity, and wisdom."  Library Journal (STARRED review)

"Wonderful.... The four characters are individually memorable, but as a quartet they re unforgettable.   Publishers Weekly (STARRED review)

"Aja Gabel s ambitious debut novel is a beautiful study of just how apt a metaphor classical music is for relationships."  New York magazine's Vulture

"Aja Gabel's debut novel centers around the four friends who make up the Van Ness Quartet: Brit, Daniel, Henry, and Jana, each wildly different but electric together despite the ups and downs of their career in music. Gabel examines the intricate complexities of their intense friendship, loyalties, and ambitions over a decade and a half in this book, which itself reads quite like a lyrical composition. You'll come for the music and stay for Gabel's realistic portrait of modern friendship."  Buzzfeed

"Aja Gabel's powerful debut offers a sensitive portrait of four young musicians forging their paths through life: sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes in harmony, but always inextricably linked by their shared pasts."
Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere

"With uncommon clarity and empathy, Aja Gabel brings us inside the passionate, complex, and sometimes cutthroat intimacy that exists among the four members of a string quartet. A wise and powerful novel about love, life, and music. I didn't want it to end."
Maggie Shipstead, New York Times bestselling author of Seating Arrangements and Astonish Me

Sweeping, romantic, elegiac, The Ensemble gives you the feeling of being inside the music of a quartet, a look into the relationships under the music, the love and heartbreak, set against their ruthless commitment to both their art, and to each other. Aja Gabel is a phenomenon.
Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"Compelling."  Town & Country

The Ensemble deserves a standing ovation. A gripping tale of four musician's journeys through discord and harmony, life and love. Aja Gabel is a brilliant young writer with the rare gift of an old soul."
Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day

"I often admire novels that are platforms for their writers' own stories, upon which their own singular character, with its own singular history, is carefully incised. This, however, is a novel of a different, more expansive, and altogether more electrifying kind. Aja Gabel contains at least four complete human beings inside her, and I'm guessing countless others. She knows these people down to their cells, and she gives all of herself to them."
Kevin Brockmeier