The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers

Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up during the Civil Rights era, come of age in the riot-torn 1960s, and live out their adulthoods through the racially retrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, "whose voice could make heads of state repent," follows a life in his parents' beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, chooses a path of militant activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this multigenerational tale, struggles to remain loyal to them both siblings. As a polarised America threatens to tear the family apart, only their deep, shared love of song stands any hope of preserving them.