Irene's Song — Astrid Julian

A contemporary fantasy, Irene's Song tells the story of world-famous conductor Irene Janowitz. She doesn't believe the rumours surrounding her work. How can music bring dead children back to life? It's a ridiculous idea. But something about her music has made her mother so afraid that she has never attended one of her concerts, not even in Vancouver, their home city. Irene's mother and grandmother share a secret, and she has no idea what it could be, except that a long, long time ago, in a land far, far away from Canada something quite strange happened to them both.

Irene's Song was a finalist for the BSFA Best Short Fiction Prize in the UK after it was published by David Pringle in Interzone 69. It also appeared in Germany in the anthology, Die Verwandlung (Heyne, Wolfgang Jeschke, editor).