Maria Àngels Anglada who died in 1999 was considered to be one of the most important Catalan writers of the 20th Century. She won many prizes and was widely read. The Auschwitz Violin – El Violi`d`Auschwitz was translated a year ago and when I saw it in a book shop I thought it’s a perfect choice. It’s slim, seems well written and tells the story of a musician and his struggle to stay human during his imprisonment in Auschwitz.
Here are the first sentences
December 1991
I always have trouble falling asleep after I perform at a concert. It keeps playing in my mind, like a tape going round and round. I was more keyed up than usual because this concert had been special: it marked the two hundredth anniversary of Mozart’s death. The recital was held in Krakow, a city of wonderful musicians, in a makeshift auditorium in the bellissima Casa Veneciana.
*******
The discussion starts on Monday, 29 October 2012.
Further information on the Literature and War Readalong 2012, including all the book blurbs, can be found here.
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
It sounds like a nice story…a musician in war time, two contradictive emotions.
Bw the way, what’s Cantalan writer?
Yes, it could be really nice. In the region around the city of Barcelona in Spain they speak Catalan not Spanish. It’s a languag that sound slike a blend of French and Spanish and it’s logcal as it’s close to the French border.
I am looking forward to this–I have my copy already as my library had it on their shelves. I didn’t realize it was so short, so I’ll wait a bit before starting it.
I’ve had it for over a year now and really had to hold back. I wanted to read it much earlier. I hope it will be good. I think it should.
Have been to Barcelona, but never read anything by a Catalan writer. This sounds very intriguing, Caroline.
I’ve read and reviewed Nada by Carmen Laforet. An amazing book other than that I haven’t read any Catalan writer either.
It does sound intriguing. And it’s nicely short 110 pages.
I took a look at this on Amazon. It sounds like it could be a great story. I think that works like this need to strike a balance, however. In the last twenty years or so I have found that certain stories centering upon the Holocaust and other atrocities have been unbearably unrealistic and sanitized. On the surface it looks like this author has avoided that.
I agree with you, especially all the romanticized approaches, love stories… There are some bad books out there.
She seems to be a renowned and accomplished writer and I hope it will not be one of those light weights.
For some reason I’m thinking there’s a film about a violin player at Auschwitz.
I don’t think I have seen it.
There’s certainly a WWII film about a piano player, called “The Piano,” or “The Piano Player,” something like that, starring Adrian Brody, though I have to confess I’m a little rusty on the details of the film by now.
I’ve seen that more than once, a very good Holocaust movie but I also have vague memory of a violin player….
This sounds like an interesting perspective on the war novel. I’ll look forward to reading the discussion!
Thanks, Litlove. Yes, I’d say it sounds a bit different and I like novels on all sorts of artists, musicians, painters. That adds another dimension.
It does sound interesting – I’m not sure if I’ll be able to participate in the discussion because I might be getting ready to go back to England just then. It’s the same reason I haven’t entered any of the giveaways for German Literature Month – not sure where I’ll be, and don’t want a book to miss me in the post. But I’ll follow along and participate where I can!
So it’s time to go back finally.
No problem at all. I’m glad you even considered joining.
I hope your move will go well.
This sounds like a wonderful book, Caroline! Music, Mozart, slim in size – it has all the elements I love 🙂 Happy reading! Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
That’s what I thought, exactly. 🙂
My library actually has this one, so I put it on hold and hope to take part in the discussion!
That would be great. It’s very short and hopefully good.
ah…I see. it’s like in Indonesia..we have so many traditional languages. So, the book is actually written in Catalan and then translated to English?