Chapter 10 was only three pages long, so I also read chapter 11.

Andreas - stop reading this right now if you don't want me to spoil the plot for you.






Chapter 10 - So Sam is locked in the room, but gets someone from the hotel to come up and unlock the door. Big surprise when it turns out to the old man!

Chapter 11 - Well, I'll be! - the old man is not Magyar's ghost like I thought. And Sam sort of thought that as well. The man is actually Magyar's son! And he has taken Humphrey to his home. So now Sam is at the man's home and sees for himself that Humphrey is alive, but because he was drugged, he has been sleeping. One thing puzzles me and that is why Sam keeps smelling that medicinal smell on the old man. We don't have much more to read, so we will probably keep getting more answers on the next chapters.

Can't wait to see what Humphrey is going to say about Sam's revelation, but I won't post anything further until you've read chapters 10 and 11.

Hi Monica,
today I had a long day of conferences at school, just on my birthday. But the advantage was, because of the long periods I had to wait between the conferences of the different classes I teach, I found many time to read, so I have read chapter 10 and 11, too.
Yes, the old man is a son of Magyar and he is the author of the book. (You remember, I have thought of this possibility, that he could be the author and a descendant of Magyar.
Indeed, the medicinal smell is strange and it Sam combines correctly, if he says, that the old man must have been in Venice and in the compartment of the train. The scene in the dark room on the way to Humphrey was very creepy, isn´t it. Sam expected at every second to get a knife into his stomach or somewhere else. So, in my opinion the author, William Sleator, has a great talent, to cause tenseness. It´s so captivating to read this novel, though I have to admit, that it takes me always much time to look for new vocabularies. Sometimes I´m sitting more than an hour with the LEO-online-dicitionary looking for new words. While reading, I usually do underline all vocabels, which are new for me. If I find the time, I look for all of them, if I have not so much time, I look only for the most important, which I need to understand the essential of the plot. Today I had no more time for the vocabels, but I think, I have understood all the essentials of the plot nevertheless.
I found the Humphreys question strange, as he awakes, if Sam would serve towels with his showers. I couldn´t translate this question in a manner, I would understand. To serve means like to give something or similar. A waiter f. ex. serves a Coke. So, how can Sam serve a towel "with" his showers (german: "er serviert ein Handtuch mit seiner Dusche" does really not make sense tome)? Or is this a saying or an idiomatic expression?

O.k., tomorrow, I think, I shall go to chapter 12.

First of all -





I hope you had a nice day today, Andreas.


And now back to the book - that last thing that Humphrey said to Sam. I think Humphrey was making a little joke because although it doesn't say in the words, Sam was very emotional and perhaps tears were coming out of his eyes - like a shower. I could be wrong, but that's what I think.

I'll get to chapter 12 tomorrow too!

Thank you so much for your nice happy-birthday-wishes!






Yes, that´s a good idea, I agree. So, Humphreys sentence gets sense. The other possibility would be, that the author lets Humphrey talk some nonsense, because he still is influenced by the pill, Bridget has given to him.

I have read chapter 12, but I don´t want to spoil you the reading. So, I do it like you did last time and I write my comment all below. So, read it first, please, if you still have read chapter 12.

















In his relief and joy, that Sam has regained his brother Humphrey, he tells that he loves him and he tells the whole secret about the plan of doping Humphrey and writing the music himself and bringing it out as Magyars compositions to save Humphreys career. So, the old man knows it from here on. The old man shows Sam a large cylindrical glass jar, which stands on an old piano, in which are two real hands in formaldehyde. It´s a creepy moment, when Sam describes the hands and says, that they look like the hands of Humphrey. These hands were supposed to be lost like it was said in the book about Magyar the old man has written. Now the old man claims, that he just had invented, that they were lost. The head of Magyar is not in the possession of the old man, but a sister of him has it.
At last the old man shows Sam an ancient leather satchel, which contains old music of Magyar and at the end there comes the clou: the compositions of Magyar, which Sam found inside are absolutely the same as Sam has written and even the wrong notes, Luc had dictated to Sam, are in there.
Now it becomes really really creepy, because at this point there is no more other possibility than the ghost of Magyar has taken possession of Sam from the afterlife. Do you agree?

I have had an idea today:
if we decide in the next time, what we´ll read as next book, I could order it soon and we wouldn´t have such a long time to wait, until I get it (if it´s again a novel, which is only selled overseas).
Do you have any idea respective suggestion, what could be our next novel?

Ok, I finished chapter 12 just now.

Wow - creepy is right!!!! I didn't expect that to happen. So there must some kind of ghostly presence somewhere, and in both boys too since Sam wrote out the same music as what was on those old papers, and Humphrey has the same shape hands as Magyar. And also Humphrey plays that music much better than he does the other repertoire.

Chapter 13 is another very short chapter. I'm going to read it as soon as I'm done here on the computer.

As to what book we could read next - I am not sure, but I will think about it. I'd still like to stay with something related to piano and also not a very long book. Maybe Nathan will be back by then. I think he is currently WC (without computer).

Pianolady wrote:


I´ll also try to read chapter 13 this evening. But first, I have to go to my training. I´m going to a fitness-studio twice in the week, only since 8 weeks now. I want to train before I do wind-surfing in summer at the Ijsselmeer in the Netherlands. Last year I did it unprepared and it was quite a shock to see, how few condition I have had.



Yes, in every case it should be piano related. WC is really funny, because it reminds my of the place where we wash our hands!

I just came back from my run. I try to run/jog/walk every day, but really I don't like doing it. Takes so long and I could be practicing piano instead. But I do like to eat a lot, so I have to exercise.


hmmmm.....WC.....are you talking about a Water Closet? You do more than wash hands in one of those.


I'll write comments on Chapter 13 after I eat my lunch - probably some spaghetti.

Chapter 13 summary. A very short one!

So Sam sees that all the music he thought he himself composed, was already written down by Magyar a long, long time ago. But the old man did not know about Humphrey saying something about the hands, so both the old man and Sam seem to be puzzled. But we learn no more than that, because Sam's parents have just arrived and have forced themselves into the old man's home.

Pianolady wrote:


Yes, I was talking about a Water Closet. In Germany we say "I go to wash my hands now" if we want advise someone of our motion to the toilet in a polite and decent manner. (So, I have made only a joke above.)




Oh, I know you swear on Italian Cooking.

I have read chapter 13 and 14, so I do recapitulate chapter 14 below (again deep below, for that you can decide, if you still want to read it, in the case that you haven´t read chapter 14).








Yes, it´s really strange, that Humphrey knew about the hands, though the old man has invented that story and only has planed to scare the family. So, there must be something like a ghost, who has "whispered" it into Humphreys mind. But only the old man has known of his plan to put the two hands of dolls into the room of the hotel. So, I suppose, that the old man himself has probably a telepathic influence on Humphrey. Wouldn´t this be a possibility? Or it´s the ghost of the dead Magyar, who influences Humphreys mind. What do you think?
O.k., in chapter 14 Bridget and Luc are in the abode of the old man and they want Humphrey to take with them. First Bridget ignores the old man, who wants to show her the old music of Magyar, which is exact the same as Sam wrote. She even doesn´t look at him first, until the old man says, that the music Sam has written is no fake but real. Now Bridget becomes very interested and suddenly she pays attention to the old man. Sam warns the old man, that Bridget will destroy the old music by Magyar, if she gets them into her hands, because it´s the only proof of the fake, which Humphreys family did. The people wouldn´t think, that really a ghost has made influence of Humphrey, but that he has transcribed his music from the old music of Maygar. At least that seems to be Sams opinion, when he says "Not even the most fervent spiritualist would believe that we hadn´t worked together and plotted the whole thing out, that we hadn´t merely copied the originals. The irony was magnificent: The only real evidence of the music´s supernatural origin was at the same time the one tangible document that would show Humphrey to be a fake."
So, Sam wants to prevent Bridget and Luc to go with the old man, who wants to show them the old Magyar music. (By the way, the old man says, that he is Laszlo Magyar. I find that to be strange, because the son would have exact the same name as his father, but in former times this was quite usual, isn´t i? What do you think?)
Sam wants to get the old man away from the door by force, and so at the end of the chapter he is knocked out by Humphreys "malformed fist", which he swung towards the side of Sams head.

Yes, I was a little taken aback when the old man said his name was Laszlo Magyar. But then I too realized that this was common to name the son the same as the father. Still, maybe we will be surprised again in the next chapter.

Also, I think Sam does not fully understand the importance of his part in all this. ( At least he has not had time to take it all in because of all the commotion going on with Bridget and Luc entering the home. ) Not only was Humphrey ‘inhabited’ by a magical talent/ghost when he played the ‘fake’ music, but Sam was too, since he ‘composed’ the music. So far, none of the others – Humphrey, Luc, and Bridget understand the importance of that. Of course, the old man does – whoever he is. I can’t wait to see how Bridget/Luc/Humphrey re-act when they see the original manuscripts.

And Andreas – we have only about 12 more pages in the book!

PIanolady wrote:


Yes, I shall try to finish the book this evening.

Hi Monica,
I have finished our novel.
In chapter 15 Sam awakes and Luc and Bridget do burn the old music. Sam, Humphrey and the old man flee with the cab, which still was there, because the driver has fallen into sleep meanwhile.
During the drive in the cab, the old man says, that Bridget and Luc were burning only copies of the music and that he still has the original at a safe place.
This is the island, Humphrey has dreamed of quite at the beginning of the novel. Here we are in "reality" (of course, in the fictional reality) in chapter 16, the last one. So, here the frame is completed. On the lonesome island, which is only known by the old man and some local boatsmen, there is the old retirement home of the old Magyar of the nineteenth century. Still the stolen Bösendorfer grand-piano is to be said in a good condition. There Laszlo (the son) has preserved the originals of the last seven compositions of Magyar, which he had left to his son. He is not said to have been a good father, who was interested in his children, but at least he has left his house in Vienna, his retirement home on the island and the royalties of his music to his son, so that he has enough money to live. Now the three live together like a family there and all seems to become better. Bridget and Luc are made responsible for their plan to do the fake. The old man teaches Humphrey, who becomes much better on the piano, and who begins to read books. So, Sam doesn´t feel him to be as stupid as before. And he himself is able to love his brother now, he has not to be so jealous all the time. So, all these things become better, because the pressure of giving concerts is away now.
But the end is creepy nevertheless, because Sam again begins to think of the odd things, which happened to him and Humphrey. First, he thought of telepathy, but at the end he comes to the conclusion, that they both, he and Humphrey, must be reincarnations of the old Magyar, because he died in such a bizarre manner. His head and his hands were separated, so Sam thinks, that he corresponds to Magyars head and Humphrey to his hands. This fits, because it´s said, that Humphreys hands are shaped like Magyars. And Humphrey does all play easily and musically, what Sam writes, also on the island it is still like this. One night they awake both at the same time from a nightmare. They are said to be spoken while sleeping. In Hungarian as Laszlo told them.
So, I think at the end it´s evident, that Magyars ghost has taken influence on Sams and Humphreys mind or that they are really both reincarnations of him. It can not clearly be said, which of both solutions is the right, may be both together.

All in all this was an intriguing and captivating story. The author, William Sleator, is a pianist and writer. I have read the information about him at the end of the book. So, couldn´t it be, that also other novels of him are piano related? In two weeks I go on holidays and I would like to take with me another English novel. Would you like to read a further one, too, Monica? Please, be honest, if you think not to have enough time for it!

Yay – we have finished our 2nd book!

I was glad to learn that the manuscripts Bridget and Luc were burning were only copies! And for a moment, I thought the whole house was going to catch fire.

I did not suspect that the two brothers would end of living away from their parents. But they were terrible parents after all! And I was glad that Humphrey and Sam really love each other now and are happy living with Laszlo, Jr.

But I loved the ending!!! Yes, I too think that the ghost of Magyar is still around and haunting these two boys. Don’t you wish there was a book 2? And Andreas – I don’t have that information about the author in the back of my book. Interesting that Sleator is also a pianist – maybe he has written other ‘piano’ books. I’ll do a little research.

And also, sure – I will read another book with you. But the hard part will be picking one out. And the next hard thing will be whether you can get your hands on a copy before you leave on your vacation.

Yes, it would be nice, if there would exist a second volume of "Fingers".
O.k., I shall also look around a bit on the internet for other books of Sleator. Of course, it would be nice, if we find a next book to read and if I get it before my holidays. In the case, that there would be not enough time to order it for me, we´ll continue, when I´m back. The world wouldn´t go under from it.

I thank you very much for being my reading-partner here. You are really wonderful and I´m motivated to read very much by our PS book club. What a pity, that Nathan was WC all the time, though he had not to wash his hands. I was missing him here.

Me too. Would also be nice if other members participate.

I'll look around on the Internet too. May not be until tomorrow, though - my husband is home (you remember what that means... ) (shhhh..don't tell here)



Edit - Oh shoot - you just put up a cute smiley. You're too fast for me!!