Symphony No. 3 follows the life of renowned French composer Camille Saint-Saëns as he ascends from child prodigy to worldwide fame. As his acclaim grows in Paris, the musical world around him clamours with competitors, dilettantes, turncoats and revenge seekers. At the height of his success, Camille leaves everything behind to embark on a Dantean quest for his dead lover, Henri. At the end of this adventure, still haunted by the holes in his past, he takes up an invitation to journey by ocean-liner to the New World.

Finely crafted in its own unique rhythmic language, Symphony No. 3 is cast in four sections to mirror Saint-Saëns's famous work, popularly known as the Organ Symphony. Written and performed in London England in the infamous late 1880s, this was the composition he hoped would finally destroy Beethoven's stranglehold on the industry and reinvent the form. Though set in the decades surrounding the fin de siècle, Symphony No. 3 speaks directly to our present moment and the rise of political violence.

Chris Eaton is a novelist and songwriter/musician from Sackville, NB, currently living in Toronto, Ontario. He is the author of two published novels called The Inactivist and The Grammar Architect, and a retrospective book of short fiction called Letters to Thomas Pynchon. He has also recorded a half dozen CDs under the name Rock Plaza Central, including the critically acclaimed Are We Not Horses.

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“The life of 19th century French composer Camille Saint-Saëns is imaginatively rendered in this novel, told from the point of view of his (fictional) twin brother—a premise which allows Eaton to play with metafictional elements, imagine interactions between historical figures, and expound on complex ideas. Eaton’s sentences are crafted with the ear of a musician, and the careful reader is rewarded for delving into their intricacies.” —New Brunswick Book Awards, The Mrs. Dunster’s Fiction Book Prize, Jury Citation

“Impressive, filled with diverse, imaginative prose and grounded in a connection to today.” —The Harvard Crimson

“A fantastically fictional account of the life and times of this prodigy with a divisive temperament… Ornate, flamboyant, assertively make-believe.” —Toronto Star