A.M Bauld’s novel Mozart’s Sister was first published in 2005 to mark the bicentenary of Mozart’s death. The author blends the few facts known about 'Nannerl' Mozart with a vivid fictional portrait of her life. First published as a paperback the novel is now also available as an eBook through Amazon.

Mozart’s Sister: A Novel

The heroine of this novel is Nannerl Mozart, the forgotten sister of a genius. As a child she had played in the royal courts of Europe with her brother, yet in adolescence, she was left at home in Salzburg with her mother while her father and Mozart lived in Italy.

The father is not portrayed as an ogre, more a parent dedicated to enshrining and marketing his son’s talent. The consequences are explored with perception and sympathy for each member and for Nannerl, in particular, as an eighteenth-century female of considerable musical gifts.

In 1770 Mozart wrote to his sister from Rome to praise her composition, urging her to send more. More of her music survives and A.M. Bauld has included one of her own songs in homage at the end of the book.

The novel follows Nannerl Mozart’s life through marriage, children, widowhood and death in conversations with her nephew Franz Xaver, Mozart’s younger son. Interwoven is a fictional account of what may have happened to Mozart’s body. It is a story with subplots ingeniously constructed from the few known facts.

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1825) by Karl Gottlieb Schwenkart. Born 1791, died 1844 aged 53.

Nannerl’s brother Wolfgang in his youth, by Barbara Kraft painted after his death.

Maria Anna Mozart as a child (1763) (portrait said to be by Lorenzoni)

Wolfgang and Nannerl Mozart, c.1763, by Eusebius Johann Alphen

Maria Anna Mozart, c. 1785 (portrait by Lange)

Mozart’s Sister, Alcina Press 2005. Paperback 227 pages,  £12.95, 
eBook £7.95. 
ISBN 978-0-9550713-0-0