Cory Oldweiler's debut novel is part coming-of-age quest, part love letter to the arts, but there is nothing quotidian in his telling of the tale. "Testimony of the Senses" is the story of Emilio Tramonti, a boy who grows up believing his father died before he was born. On his seventeenth birthday, Emilio learns that his life has been predicated on a lie, his father is alive. He leaves home, seeking to understand, and eventually to confront, the man who ran rather than raise his child. Navigating thoughts on family and faith; love and loss; literature, language and music; Emilio is conducted through it all by his omnipresent companion, Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony, which he believes provides the aural architecture of his life. In the propulsive final movement, Emilio finally faces judgment for the choices he has made.
