[1] It followed her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1993 work The Shipping News and was shortlisted for the 1997 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

[2] The novel begins in the nineteenth century, as a Sicilian accordion-maker comes to the United States in search of better opportunities.

[3] He is shot by an anti-Italian lynch mob, and his accordion falls into the hands of several other owners, many of whom meet painful ends themselves.

The accordion traverses a continent, traveling to Louisiana, Iowa, Texas, Maine, Illinois, Montana, and Mississippi.

Writer Seppo Parkkinen and director Fiikka Forsman adapted the novel for the Turku City Theatre.