At the heart of What Could Be Saved is the culture of the violin world―its beauty, myth-making, magic, romance and deceit, as well as its history and ethos of perfection at any cost. In stories and novellas matched end-to-end like the twinned or “bookmatched” pieces of tonewood that separately comprise a violin, What Could Be Saved winds its way through the hopes and dreams of builders, dealers and players caught up in the violin trade, a trade that is so unlike any other in the world. From the story of a young man who refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps as a violin builder, to the magical realism of the story told in the point of view of forgotten, abused and ordinary violins, What Could Be Saved transports you into the world of the violin, compelling you to witness its most tragic, comic and thoroughly human dramas. Blending viewpoints and storytelling techniques, including magical and psychological realism, moving from novella to story and back again, there is a sustained musicality that thrums through these beautiful, almost dream-like tales. Spatz’s language is precise and powerful, his fiction elegantly wrought. A book that echoes long after its music ends. "Elegantly narrated and engaging, with an ending that packs a punch. What Could Be Saved is for readers who love being immersed in the minutiae of a world they would not otherwise enter. Spatz curates his language with the care of a skilled instrument maker,shaping the lives of makers and performers and amateur players." NPR Books "As a child, he begged his parents for violin lessons, and many of hispassages have a kind of legato feel to them--a style of playing thatconnects notes smoothly together, without silence in-between, whilestill allowing each note to be articulated." -Wendy J. Fox, The Rumpus "Gregory Spatz's new book isentrancing, a truly original work unlike anything else I can think of.It succeeds on so many different levels: as fiction, as musicology, as a primer on the art of violin-building. The prose in these pages simply dazzles. What a special writer Spatz has become." --Steve Yarbrough, author of eleven books, most recently the novel The Unmade World. Gregory Spatz is the author of the novels Inukshuk, Fiddler's Dream and No One But Us , and of the story collections WHAT COULD BE SAVED: BOOKMATCHED NOVELLAS & STORIES, Half as Happy and Wonderful Tricks . His stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, Glimmer Train Stories, Shenandoah, Epoch, Kenyon Review and New England Review . The recipient of a Michener Fellowship, an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Washington State Book Award, and an NEA Fellowship in literature, he teaches at Eastern Washington University in Spokane. Spatz plays the fiddle in the twice Juno-nominated bluegrass band John Reischman and the Jaybirds.