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A review by avery_21
A Garden of Eden in Hell: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer by Melissa Müller
4.0
When I first saw this book it seemed to be a book about a holocaust survivor. But now that I finally read it, it much more than just that. It's the story of a girl who grows into a woman. Her journey in music that saved her life more than once. The book starts with a girl who is as optimistic as they get. She sees beauty in life. And when she discovers the piano she starts to make it beautiful as well. Music shapes her life and brings her a man that loves her with results in a son that adores her.
As the nazis start to advance on the rest of Europe some family members decide to leave for Jerusalem, Alice and Leopold choice to stay behind with their son Stephan. The world starts to get grimmer and grimmer and in the end they get their deporatation orders in.
They end up in Theresienstadt and they try to make life as normal as possible for Stephan. In the camp there is a comity that arranges concerts to be played by all the musicians imprisoned. Alice gets to practise and play her beloved piano. It lifts the spirits of all who come and listen. It is her music that saves her life time and again. It keeps her from being deported to other camps and she stays at Theresienstadt until the end of the war.
Returning to her home, life is not the way it was before and she decides to move to her family in Jerusalem to start over.
This book is a beautiful account of the life behind the horror. It gave me an inside into the camps and that it wasn't just all horrible. Alice tried to make the best of a bad situation and her personality and positivity is an inspiration.
As the nazis start to advance on the rest of Europe some family members decide to leave for Jerusalem, Alice and Leopold choice to stay behind with their son Stephan. The world starts to get grimmer and grimmer and in the end they get their deporatation orders in.
They end up in Theresienstadt and they try to make life as normal as possible for Stephan. In the camp there is a comity that arranges concerts to be played by all the musicians imprisoned. Alice gets to practise and play her beloved piano. It lifts the spirits of all who come and listen. It is her music that saves her life time and again. It keeps her from being deported to other camps and she stays at Theresienstadt until the end of the war.
Returning to her home, life is not the way it was before and she decides to move to her family in Jerusalem to start over.
This book is a beautiful account of the life behind the horror. It gave me an inside into the camps and that it wasn't just all horrible. Alice tried to make the best of a bad situation and her personality and positivity is an inspiration.