One evening in 1924, Kay Swift, a concert pianist and society wife of banker James Warburg, hears George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and they begin a lasting affair, complicated by her loyalty to her husband and her own musical career. Together until his early death at age 38, George and Kay bring people and culture together to give the world Gershwin classics unmatched in popular music history. Based on true events, Kaplan’s atmospheric retelling evokes the music, art, politics, banking, and American antisemitism of New York’s Jazz Age.

Mitchell James Kaplan is an award-winning historical novelist who launched his career with the encouragement of William Styron. Rhapsody is his third novel.