The Lost Mozart

A Novel

Published by Regalo Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

A college music student discovers a long-lost Mozart sketch and sets out to finish the piece and give its world premiere.

Noah Wideman is an overqualified music student trying to graduate with a degree no one asked for. It’s 1987. His parents had hoped for medicine or law—anything with a parking space—but instead, he’s scraping by on odd jobs and the kind of hope only a twenty-one-year-old with a library card can muster. One of those jobs is at Allegro FM, the local classical station, where he stumbles into an unlikely friendship with Bertram Bobker: honey-voiced, immaculately dressed, and somewhere north of eighty.

When Noah is unceremoniously fired, Bertram quits in protest. Soon, Noah is spending afternoons with Bertram’s closest friends: aging gentlemen who sip Poire Williams, collect dusty manuscripts, and speak of dead composers as if they might still RSVP to dinner.

That’s where Noah discovers a handwritten sketch which looks suspiciously—impossibly—like Mozart. An unfinished string quartet. The kind of thing you don’t just find. But Noah is young and full of gumption, so he decides to finish it and bring it to the world, thinking this is the answer to everyone’s problems.

Enter Eos: a fellow student, brilliant and intimidating, with a silence that unnerves professors. Together, they launch a wild plan, part heist, part heartfelt gamble on the power of music, friendship, and second chances. Because who’s to say one more piece by Mozart can’t still upend a few lives, mend a few hearts, and maybe even cover first and last month’s rent?

About The Author

David K. Israel is a composer and author whose music has traveled farther than he has, commissioned and staged by leading dance companies and choreographers across the globe. This is his second novel—and probably not his last.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Regalo Press (August 4, 2026)
  • Length: 288 pages
  • ISBN13: 9798895654170

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

“A rollicking Künstlerroman told with great brio and deep insight into the worlds of classical music and young love.”

– Adam Ehrlich Sachs, author of Gretel and the Great War

"Composer David K. Israel’s exquisite, new novel is not just a tale about a mysterious Mozart manuscript, it’s about the entire subject of music—and it warrants its own accompanying playlist. It’s a work of unexpected mastery.”

– Isaac Mizrahi, author, performer, designer

"This book – which features spying, secret manuscripts, exotic dancers, and Mozart’s naughty side—among many other topics—is irresistible. Delightful and highly recommended.”

– A.J. Jacobs, bestselling author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically

“What a delight this book is. With hilarious wit (sometimes highbrow, sometimes lowbrow), David K. Israel’s The Lost Mozart understands something essential: that the pursuit of greatness is both absurd and holy. I loved it.”

– Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images

BACK TO TOP