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ironi's review
5.0
I want to apologize to this book. I didn't pick this book up today because I thought it would be a good day to read it. I picked this book up today because I am one book behind on my book challenge and I wanted something short I'd be able to read in less than an hour. At 115 ebook pages, that was it.
I'm blown away. The Holocaust has always been a subject that has fascinated me. It seems that no matter how many books, pictures, diaries, and works of art I see, I still find it hard to grasp that it actually happened, that humanity let this happen, that not that long ago people lived like that and experienced that and no one did anything (not no one, sorry, the majority).
Each time I read books like this, it brings it to life, which is so so important. It's important to understand that people like Daniel aren't fictional. It's important to understand that the events described aren't exaggerated, they happened.
This book is amazing. Music and art are so powerful. I can't even word my thoughts about this book because I'm so amazed. It's been a while since I've read a book that hit me as much as this book did.
You felt for Daniel. I was rooting so much for him. The way he was written was wonderful. I normally don't like translations but this one was great, it felt natural.
I'm not doing a good job of describing how this book affected me so I'll just tell you all to read it cause it's amazing.
I'm blown away. The Holocaust has always been a subject that has fascinated me. It seems that no matter how many books, pictures, diaries, and works of art I see, I still find it hard to grasp that it actually happened, that humanity let this happen, that not that long ago people lived like that and experienced that and no one did anything (not no one, sorry, the majority).
Each time I read books like this, it brings it to life, which is so so important. It's important to understand that people like Daniel aren't fictional. It's important to understand that the events described aren't exaggerated, they happened.
This book is amazing. Music and art are so powerful. I can't even word my thoughts about this book because I'm so amazed. It's been a while since I've read a book that hit me as much as this book did.
You felt for Daniel. I was rooting so much for him. The way he was written was wonderful. I normally don't like translations but this one was great, it felt natural.
I'm not doing a good job of describing how this book affected me so I'll just tell you all to read it cause it's amazing.
anunande's review
At only 160 odd pages (a fact I was surprised at when I checked my Kindle), this is a novella length work about a luthier (violin-maker) in one of Auschwitz's concentration camps who is ordered by his Commandant to craft a violin along the measurements of a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, I was mostly disappointed despite some of the enjoyable moments
The full review here:
https://anushreenande.com/the-auschwitz-violin-a-book-review
The full review here:
https://anushreenande.com/the-auschwitz-violin-a-book-review
carosbcher's review against another edition
5.0
Eine Geige ist hier der Mittelpunkt. Um sie herum wird ein Stück Geschichte, werden schreckliche Tage, Lebensschicksale gezeichnet. Mitten im Leid und Schrecken eines Nebenlagers von Auschwitz-Birkenau wird ein wunderschönes Musikinstrument gefertigt - eine perfekte Violine mit besonderem Klang. Sie gibt Hoffnung und ist für den Geigenbauer und den Geigenspieler ein kleines Licht in den dunklen Reihen kalter, schmerzerfüllter Tage. Trotzdem ist auch mit dieser Violine eine grausame Angst verbunden, denn die Willkür der Aufseher, die Schläge und schrecklichen Strafen und eine unmenschliche Wette stehen hinter ihr...
Vor einigen Jahren war ich in Auschwitz und habe einige der schrecklichen Orte gesehen, Ich habe in die im Buch erwähnte Arrestzelle der Stufe 3 hinein geschaut und könnte mir nicht vorstellen, es dort auch nur fünf Minuten auszuhalten. Es ist unvorstellbar für mich, drei Tage in diesem dunklen, winzigen Raum zu stehen (!), in dem nicht einmal genügend Platz ist, sich auf den Boden zu setzen. Und doch ist diese Zelle nur ein kleines Element des Schreckens von Auschwitz. Diese Ungewissheit, was noch mit einem passiert, das Miterleben, was um einen herum und mit geliebten Menschen passiert und dieses völlige Ausgeliefertsein - einfach schrecklich.
Ein eindrucksvolles, trauriges und doch auch sehr starkes kleines Buch. Der Erzählstil ist einzigartig. Besonders die Sprünge und die Abgeschlossenheit der einzelnen Kapitel haben mir gut gefallen.
Vor einigen Jahren war ich in Auschwitz und habe einige der schrecklichen Orte gesehen, Ich habe in die im Buch erwähnte Arrestzelle der Stufe 3 hinein geschaut und könnte mir nicht vorstellen, es dort auch nur fünf Minuten auszuhalten. Es ist unvorstellbar für mich, drei Tage in diesem dunklen, winzigen Raum zu stehen (!), in dem nicht einmal genügend Platz ist, sich auf den Boden zu setzen. Und doch ist diese Zelle nur ein kleines Element des Schreckens von Auschwitz. Diese Ungewissheit, was noch mit einem passiert, das Miterleben, was um einen herum und mit geliebten Menschen passiert und dieses völlige Ausgeliefertsein - einfach schrecklich.
Ein eindrucksvolles, trauriges und doch auch sehr starkes kleines Buch. Der Erzählstil ist einzigartig. Besonders die Sprünge und die Abgeschlossenheit der einzelnen Kapitel haben mir gut gefallen.
balancinghistorybooks's review against another edition
3.0
The history nerd within me is absolutely fascinated by books which take World War Two as their focus, particularly so in instances where fact and fiction have been woven together. Such is the case in Maria Angels Anglada’s novella, The Auschwitz Violin. Translated into English by Martha Tennent, it was originally published in Catalan. Anglada, who died in 1999, was one of the most important figures in Catalonia, as well as one of the region’s most prestigious authors.
The Auschwitz Violin has been on my radar for a number of years, but I was only recently able to find a copy via my local library system. Standing at just 109 pages, this book is a slim one, but even before beginning, I expected it to pack quite a punch.
Each chapter opens with an authentic document of World War Two; the first of these details the fatal shooting of a Jewish woman along the ghetto border, who is trying to steal turnips from a cart. The novel proper begins in Krakow in 2001, with a concert musician named Climent, who becomes fascinated by the violin of a fellow player, and wishes to know its origins: ‘When the lesson finished, Regina placed her violin in my hands. I tried it, and the strings responded to my every appeal. like pliant clay being molded in my hands’. Her uncle, Daniel, made it, she tells him, to ‘the same measurements as the Stradivarius’. Regina decides to give Climent photocopies of all of the material which she has collected about the Holocaust, in which the majority of her family were murdered.9781849019811
Throughout, the third person narrative voice has been used to detail Daniel’s story. He has been imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp, tasked with building a wooden greenhouse, in which ‘Commander Sauckel, a refined but sadistic giant of a man, was determined to cultivate gladioli and camellias’. Whilst giving his profession as a cabinetmaker, Daniel is actually a luthier, a violin maker. When we first meet him, he is being harshly whipped for the crime of oversleeping. Anglada quickly build a picture of the horrific conditions which surround her protagonist, and continually reasserts his place within the camp: ‘No nightmare, he thought, could possibly be worse than the cruelty that surrounded them, pervaded them, as inescapable as the air they breathed’.
As soon as the camp command finds out about Daniel’s true profession, he is told that he has just one day to repair a violin, otherwise he will face grave consequences. This process of mending also helps to mend him, giving back the humanity which he had been stripped of upon arrival: ‘He was himself once again, not a number, not an object of taunting ridicule. He was Daniel, a luthier by profession. At that moment he thought of nothing other than the job at hand and the pride he took in it’. As one would expect, there is information here which deals with the making of violins, but it does often feel as though it has been rather overdone, and it overshadows other details of the plot. Some of the scenes which detail Daniel’s craft also tend to be a little long, or rather repetitive.
Anglada details how Daniel comes to rely on those around him in some ways: ‘His fellow inmates – lice-infested, like him, to a greater or lesser degree – provided a warm, familiar reassurance’. The details which have been written about so simply carry with them a haunting quality: ‘From the ceiling hung corpses and violins’. There is a flatness to the whole, though, and it is rather too distanced – the fault of the third person perspective, perhaps.
Catalan authors seem to do novellas well, but I must admit that I have a preference for Maria Barbal’s Peirene-published Stone in a Landslide, which I read a couple of months before The Auschwitz Violin. Whilst it deals with entirely different subject matter, the aforementioned seems to have had a tighter handle both over characters and scenes, and is not so abrupt in some places as The Auschwitz Violin tends to be. There may be a problem with the translation which takes some of the human element away, and there is a definite lack of emotion here; but nevertheless, the strong story in Anglada’s novella deserves to be read.
The Auschwitz Violin has been on my radar for a number of years, but I was only recently able to find a copy via my local library system. Standing at just 109 pages, this book is a slim one, but even before beginning, I expected it to pack quite a punch.
Each chapter opens with an authentic document of World War Two; the first of these details the fatal shooting of a Jewish woman along the ghetto border, who is trying to steal turnips from a cart. The novel proper begins in Krakow in 2001, with a concert musician named Climent, who becomes fascinated by the violin of a fellow player, and wishes to know its origins: ‘When the lesson finished, Regina placed her violin in my hands. I tried it, and the strings responded to my every appeal. like pliant clay being molded in my hands’. Her uncle, Daniel, made it, she tells him, to ‘the same measurements as the Stradivarius’. Regina decides to give Climent photocopies of all of the material which she has collected about the Holocaust, in which the majority of her family were murdered.9781849019811
Throughout, the third person narrative voice has been used to detail Daniel’s story. He has been imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp, tasked with building a wooden greenhouse, in which ‘Commander Sauckel, a refined but sadistic giant of a man, was determined to cultivate gladioli and camellias’. Whilst giving his profession as a cabinetmaker, Daniel is actually a luthier, a violin maker. When we first meet him, he is being harshly whipped for the crime of oversleeping. Anglada quickly build a picture of the horrific conditions which surround her protagonist, and continually reasserts his place within the camp: ‘No nightmare, he thought, could possibly be worse than the cruelty that surrounded them, pervaded them, as inescapable as the air they breathed’.
As soon as the camp command finds out about Daniel’s true profession, he is told that he has just one day to repair a violin, otherwise he will face grave consequences. This process of mending also helps to mend him, giving back the humanity which he had been stripped of upon arrival: ‘He was himself once again, not a number, not an object of taunting ridicule. He was Daniel, a luthier by profession. At that moment he thought of nothing other than the job at hand and the pride he took in it’. As one would expect, there is information here which deals with the making of violins, but it does often feel as though it has been rather overdone, and it overshadows other details of the plot. Some of the scenes which detail Daniel’s craft also tend to be a little long, or rather repetitive.
Anglada details how Daniel comes to rely on those around him in some ways: ‘His fellow inmates – lice-infested, like him, to a greater or lesser degree – provided a warm, familiar reassurance’. The details which have been written about so simply carry with them a haunting quality: ‘From the ceiling hung corpses and violins’. There is a flatness to the whole, though, and it is rather too distanced – the fault of the third person perspective, perhaps.
Catalan authors seem to do novellas well, but I must admit that I have a preference for Maria Barbal’s Peirene-published Stone in a Landslide, which I read a couple of months before The Auschwitz Violin. Whilst it deals with entirely different subject matter, the aforementioned seems to have had a tighter handle both over characters and scenes, and is not so abrupt in some places as The Auschwitz Violin tends to be. There may be a problem with the translation which takes some of the human element away, and there is a definite lack of emotion here; but nevertheless, the strong story in Anglada’s novella deserves to be read.
beedee's review
5.0
Simple and beautiful book. Looks like old fashion holocaust memoir but it is nothing like that. Quick read but because of the story I wouldn't like to read more. Just enough to bond with the hero and feel the tension of the horrible time in the nazi camp.
lnatal's review against another edition
2.0
Just arrived from France through BM.
As Barb mentioned in her review, I didn't find the story so engaging as the plot appeared to be interesting.
As Barb mentioned in her review, I didn't find the story so engaging as the plot appeared to be interesting.
juliaredon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
stephend81d5's review
4.0
harrowing in parts and would appeal to readers of the boy in the striped pyjamas
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