The Unicorn Sonata

The Unicorn Sonata, Peter S. Beagle, Turner Publishing, 1996

Josephine "Joey" Rivera is your average thirteen-year-old resident of present-day West Los Angeles. A misfit in school but a born musician, she helps out at a dusty instrument-repair shop in exchange for music lessons from the elderly owner.

One day, a strange young man with pointed ears named Indigo enters the shop. He carries a horn the color of a conch shell, from which comes the most incredible music, enough to drive the owner, Mr Papas, almost to tears. The music stays with Joey until, late one night, she follows it down an ordinary street and finds herself in a land called Shei'rah. It's a place of satyrs, water nymphs, two-headed serpents, and Old Ones, unicorns whose music is the soul of Shei'rah. It's not all wonderful; there are perytons, small flying creatures with sharp teeth and nasty attitudes, and all of the unicorns are slowly going blind.

Joey stays for several days in Shei'rah, and finds that little, or no, time has passed in West Los Angeles. Because the border is stable, for now, Joey returns home. On her next visit, she brings her grandmother, whom she has broken out of her nursing home. Joey figures that if anyone can cure the unicorn's congenital blindness, her grandmother can.

This is a "quiet", young adult, society-building sort of story. Except for one fight sequence, there's no blood. This is an excellent novel for young people, or as an introduction to the "unicorns" sub-genre of fantasy.