Over­ture is a roman­tic sto­ry about great musi­cal tal­ent, but no musi­cal lit­er­a­cy is required to thor­ough­ly enjoy this debut nov­el, which describes three gen­er­a­tions of mother/​daugh­ter rela­tion­ships, student/​mentor inter­ac­tions, artis­tic tem­pera­ments, com­pos­ing vs. per­form­ing, ful­fill­ment and heart­break, self-sac­ri­fice and self­ish­ness. Natasha Darsky, ​“the most famous vio­lin­ist since Pagani­ni,” is quite a celebri­ty. We are privy to the glam­our in her whirl­wind life, as Gold­stein describes her world-wide com­pe­ti­tions and per­for­mance tours. We read about Natasha’s loves — her manager/​parents, the artis­tic men in her life, and her daugh­ter, Alex, who grows to sur­pass her mother’s cre­ative genius in music. The sto­ry takes place in New York City, on Amer­i­can col­lege cam­pus­es, and on for­eign musi­cal stages.