Sting: Broken Music. A Memoir

“...‘Broken Music’ leaves the feeling of a personal catharsis, which is rare in publications of this genre… Thoughtful and astonishing…”, — the British magazine London Spectator

A brilliantly written autobiography that, like a novel, immerses readers in Gordon Sumner’s childhood. Starting out in a backwater English town, he managed to conquer the whole world with his talent and drive.

Sting does not strive to recount his life in chronological and detailed form. Instead, he gathers memories of places and people, like a patchwork quilt, drawing listeners’ attention to certain, most significant moments for him.

The narrative begins with his childhood in an old Victorian house, where his mother introduces the future star to the world of music, passionately playing tango on the piano. And the memoirs end on the bank of a quiet river, in which the body of a ritualistically murdered girl is found. By this point, Sting has already gained fame—his group The Police has already broken up, his marriage has ended in divorce, and he has lost both parents. And yet he understands that the future is not hopeless—everything lies ahead: “I’d like to believe that what was broken has been fixed in the end, and what was wrong has been corrected.”

This book will be interesting not only to Sting fans, but to everyone who loves British prose.