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In this episode of Shelf Life we are time traveling, courtesy of two 2021 National Book Award finalists: Anthony Doerr’s critically acclaimed Cloud Cuckoo Land which takes readers to 15th century Constantinople, 20th century Idaho, and the year 2064; and Hanif Abdurraqib's latest book of essays, A Little Devil in America, a collection that pirouettes between decades to celebrate the history of Black performance in America. Both are  favorites of Brendan Slocumb, a classically-trained musician who has just published The Violin Conspiracy, a page-turning mystery in which a young Black musical prodigy inherits a priceless Stradivarius only to have it stolen from his hotel room on the eve of performing at the world’s most prestigious music contest. Like his protagonist, Slocumb started playing violin at nine in a public schools music program, and has credited that experience for determining the shape of his life. “When my friends were out running the streets, I was in rehearsals,” he has said. “When they were breaking into houses, I was practicing Mozart or Dvořák."