A creative memoir by the 2019 Wellcome Prize winner Will Eaves chronicles a year spent writing a sonata from scratch, in full recognition of the likelihood of failure, to see what can be learned about ambition and limitation. And time.

The Point of Distraction explores the way that second-string activities bring one’s main interests in life into focus, considering artists as critics, writers as musicians. Staring at your creative pursuit straight on can render it impossible, but if you let it occupy the space of distraction, to your side, it lives and breathes. This novel memoir touches on neuroscience, musical theory and will power.