Publication Date: December 6, 2024
A woman living alone in a coastal Sussex town in 1998 plants a copper beech sapling at 3 a.m. on a dark, cold night. Why?
In the 1960s and 1970s married couple Grete and Amadeus are principal dancers of the East Berlin ballet company at the opera house in Unter den Linden. Feeling oppressed, hungering for freedom Amadeus begins planning a daring escape from East Germany to the West with his little daughter, Maja, but not with his wife. Why? And will he make it?
In 2022 Karsten von Stein, a German from Munich, lives in Richmond by London. He is a principal of the Royal Ballet and a widower with two young children. He meets Ivone Benjamim, a Portuguese, newly-arrived principal dancer of the Royal Ballet and recently divorced from an abusive husband. They discover a magical chemistry when dancing and soon it transfers to their private lives. They fall in love.
Among the harmony of ballet a woman called Grace tells her story from a rehab centre in Sussex. Obsessive and delusional she convinces herself that Ivone is robbing her of happiness with the man of her dreams, Karsten. Then a skeleton is found in a garden, buried under a tree.
What connects the dancers from East Germany with the modern-day principals of the Royal Ballet? What is the relationship between the woman planting a tree in the middle of the night and all others? Stories from the past merge with those from the present to take you on an exhilarating journey, here and now, as if you were in the audience at the ballet.
Arabesque by author M G da Mota is historical fiction with multiple storylines spanning many years. The story takes the readers from the past to the present and back again.
The story begins with Amadeus and his wife residing in East Germany, with the Berlin Wall in place. When Amadeus finds out years later his wife was an informant for the government, he is heartbroken and angry, knowing that she gave out information about friends and family, causing them pain and suffering. He secretly vows he will take him and his young daughter away from East Germany so they can be free and make their own choices. When he does so, none of their lives are the same. Amadeus and his young daughter, Maja, reap the rewards when they leave to live in the free world with his aunt and uncle.
In the present, main character, Grace, is difficult to like since her needs always come first. Her friend Lacey, a wealthy widow after her much older husband died, always stood by her and bestowed kindness upon her. But Lacey often seemed to enable Grace instead of actually helping her. Karsten, whom Grace becomes fixated on, is a principal ballet dancer.
Karsten and Grace’s paths cross unexpectedly several times, and though they had few interactions, in Grace’s eyes, he became the love of her life. Her actions to be around Karsten were often over the top and mind-boggling. The acts then turned hurtful, delusional, and scary, and Grace showed her true self.
While the story goes from Germany to London and some of its suburbs, the ballet is always front and center. The story was sometimes choppy only because we went from past to present and to different locations, with the characters of various ages throughout. The story has many layers, and it was interesting it came full circle. However, while much of the plot seemed obvious to me, it didn’t become evident to most of the characters. Besides Grace, the other characters are likable and help add another dimension to the story.
There is closure and an unexpected happily ever after, but to me, it only scratched the surface.
I hope to read more of the author’s books since she made me feel a part of the story from the beginning to its end.
Before reading the book, I read the Author’s Notes and Bibliography, and they provided some key insights to understand the story better. Ballet is at the forefront and I could visualize the dances even with my limited knowledge and hear and feel the music pulsing through my soul. The Brief Glossary of Ballet Words was extremely useful and increased my understanding and enjoyment.
Arabesque will be enjoyed by all who enjoy ballet and historical fiction, with a dash of intrigue, mystery, and stories set in different locales. Enjoy this rich story as families and their lives play out over many years.
 
M G da Mota is Margarida Mota-Bull’s pen name for fiction. She is a Portuguese-British
novelist with a love for classical music, ballet and opera. Under her real name she also
writes reviews of live concerts, CDs, DVDs and books for two classical music magazines on
the web: MusicWeb International and Seen and Heard International. She is a member of
the UK Society of Authors, speaks four languages and lives in Sussex with her husband.
