Since the World is Ending
by Indyana Schneider
Scribner
Twenty eight year-old Maya was living the life she always wanted, residing in Vienna and being the First Violinist for the prestigious Habsburg Philharmonic. Maya’s days were filled with music, and her nights were filled with passionate no-strings-attached sex with her colleague, star cellist Lucia.
Maya usually tried to avoid sleeping with other musicians, but they were “sordidly good in bed”. Maybe it was something about the rhythm or the coordination, or the dexterity. Or it was that they understood the many sacrifices needed to perform at the pinnacle of their art.
It was the life that Maya’s English teacher boyfriend Josh didn’t want, and it had been difficult to break up with him while still very much in love. But Josh didn’t want a childless, adventurous, quasi-nomadic life, so he stayed in London.

Then, a year after Maya had left London, the ex-love of her life decided to come to visit her in Vienna. With no warning, Josh just turned up at her residence to throw everything in Maya’s new life into a state of confusion.
This is Schneider’s second novel (her first being 28 Questions) and it was written in countless airports, train stations and friends’ living rooms as her singing career took her around the world.
Australian mezzo-soprano Indyana Schneider studied Music at Oxford University and opera in Vienna. It is no surprise that this world-renowned opera singer takes the reader to Vienna, and blended music and passion with desire and passion in her fascinating novel.
Lezly Herbert