I ended up really liking this novella. It is a literary exploration of an art/music journalist who falls for a female conductor from France, and an exploration of unequal expectations in a relationship. Here is a passage:

"Maybe if this were a proper, mutual, happy love story, it would call for a story indeed. Maybe two people finding each other warrants a retelling, a founding through a story.
Two people, a man and a woman in particular. But we don't have a man and a woman here.
Maybe if I came from a proper, coherent-appearing, long-historicised country, speaking one language---that is if I came from somewhere other than Canada--I would have also wanted to keep alive the tradition of making stories believable.
Maybe if all this happened within the same language it would have fit better.
Maybe, Probably.
As it is now, I must speak about what is happening, but I can't give you a story. Plot is a form of self-medication: look, rejoice, there's a glimpse of sense. Fragments will come together to mean something. Let's ignore all what conspires against the narrative." ( )