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A review by spinesinaline
The violin of Auschwitz by Martha Tennent, Maria Àngels Anglada
4.0
Find more of my reviews at https://spinesinaline.wordpress.com
This was surprisingly the second book I read this month about WWII that had 'violin' in the title. I chose this one mainly because it started with V for the alphabet challenge but it was a really beautiful and powerfully-written book and the translation is excellent so I'd recommend it to anyone looking for books on WWII.
As the blurb hints at, the story is kind of told in a series of flashbacks. We’re introduced to our present (1990s) characters but very quickly switch to 1942 to focus on one man in particular, Daniel, who is interned in a prisoner camp. I much preferred the flashback portion to the present story; the beginning and introductions felt very awkward, and later in the book when we start to flip back into the present, it was sudden and disconnected, and didn’t really separate itself clearly from the past.
What I found both moving and quite startling was that each chapter claimed to begin with a real document from the camps (I say claim because I don’t know whether these were actually real; there were no notes as to where they were acquired from) – such as an incident report when a prisoner was shot or a detailed procedure on how to administer punishment for various offences.
It’s not an easy read. Daniel has his violin-making, which starts to give him hope again in spite of his surroundings, but this hope is in stark contrast to the horrors occurring in the camp and the author doesn’t shy away from these, though nothing is detailed explicitly. The author pays particular attention to the use of experiments involving prisoners, as the threat hanging over Daniel is that if his violin repairs are unsuccessful, he’ll be the doctor’s next subject.
WWII novels will always need to deal with heavy content, especially those that focus on Jewish people, but I think the author’s pairing of this past with the power of music and the beauty of these violins really highlights the human experience, of these survivors’ endurance and hope through it all.
This was surprisingly the second book I read this month about WWII that had 'violin' in the title. I chose this one mainly because it started with V for the alphabet challenge but it was a really beautiful and powerfully-written book and the translation is excellent so I'd recommend it to anyone looking for books on WWII.
As the blurb hints at, the story is kind of told in a series of flashbacks. We’re introduced to our present (1990s) characters but very quickly switch to 1942 to focus on one man in particular, Daniel, who is interned in a prisoner camp. I much preferred the flashback portion to the present story; the beginning and introductions felt very awkward, and later in the book when we start to flip back into the present, it was sudden and disconnected, and didn’t really separate itself clearly from the past.
What I found both moving and quite startling was that each chapter claimed to begin with a real document from the camps (I say claim because I don’t know whether these were actually real; there were no notes as to where they were acquired from) – such as an incident report when a prisoner was shot or a detailed procedure on how to administer punishment for various offences.
It’s not an easy read. Daniel has his violin-making, which starts to give him hope again in spite of his surroundings, but this hope is in stark contrast to the horrors occurring in the camp and the author doesn’t shy away from these, though nothing is detailed explicitly. The author pays particular attention to the use of experiments involving prisoners, as the threat hanging over Daniel is that if his violin repairs are unsuccessful, he’ll be the doctor’s next subject.
WWII novels will always need to deal with heavy content, especially those that focus on Jewish people, but I think the author’s pairing of this past with the power of music and the beauty of these violins really highlights the human experience, of these survivors’ endurance and hope through it all.