The ghost of Franz Schubert
has haunted me for a decade

Blazing Reader,

For nearly a decade the ghost of Franz Schubert has haunted me.

The hauntings began around 2015, the day I hit play on a CD I had borrowed from the library of Peter Pears singing Die schöne Müllerin (Schubert's classic series of narrative songs from 1823). The melody captivated me even before I had read an English translation of the German lyrics.

Five years later, I began writing the first draft for Much Ado About Corona, a novel about a German-Canadian baker refusing to capitulate to the COVID measures. As if Schubert were whispering in my ear, I found myself weaving excerpts from his masterpiece throughout the 500-page story (with English translations in footnotes).

Adding those German lyrics was easy: copy, paste, done.

I hadn't thought about the audiobook version.

In 2022, after publishing the ebook, paperback and hardcover editions, I began three years of tutoring and rehearsals.

For most of that time, my good friend Wolfgang Wurzbacher helped me each week with the German pronunciation (when he'd deliver my groceries from Pfenning's Organic). For the final stretch, however, my newly-wed Dutch wife, Ina, rehearsed with me almost every day (either visiting in person or over Zoom, as we still live with an ocean between us until April 16).

Today, we recorded the final takes.

I was in the recording studio here in Ontario, and she was in our kitchen in the Netherlands correcting my German while making lasagna and cake. It took us three hours to record 55 verses. I think Ina said she also folded laundry, did pilates and planted some potatoes. Women like to multitask. I, however, focused all my masculine strength on pronouncing the tricky German Ü.

You can hear a two-minute sample below, from "Chapter 28. A New Normal Criminal," fresh from the studio:

Here's a PDF transcript of all the excerpts from Die schöne Müllerin used in Much Ado About Corona.

With thanks to Wolfgang, Ina and Schubert's ghost (may he forever haunt me).

John C.A. Manley

P.S. The audiobook version of Much Ado About Corona still has much proofing and editing to go before it will be available for sale. Until then, have you purchased a copy of my All the Humans Are Sleeping audiobook for yourself and everybody you know? You can listen to a sample or purchase a copy at AllTheHumansAreSleeping.com.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.