The Song of Names

Martin Simmonds' father tells him, "Never trust a musician when he speaks about love." The advice comes too late. Martin already loves Dovidl Rapoport, an eerily gifted Polish violin prodigy whose parents left him in the Simmonds's care before they perished in the Holocaust. For a time the two boys are closer than brothers. But on the day he is to make his official debut, Dovidl disappears. Only 40 years later does Martin get his first clue about what happened to him.

In this ravishing novel of music and suspense, Norman Lebrecht unravels the strands of love, envy and exploitation that knot geniuses to their admirers. In doing so he also evokes the fragile bubble of Jewish life in prewar London; the fearful carnival of the Blitz, and the gray new world that emerged from its ashes. Bristling with ideas, lambent with feeling, The Song of Names is a masterful work of the imagination.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Published: 02/10/2004
ISBN: 9781400034895
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 7.94h x 5.26w x 0.70d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2003 pg. 1246
Publishers Weekly 11/24/2003 pg. 39
Booklist 11/15/2003 pg. 573
Booksense '76 Mar/Apr_2004 03/01/2004 pg. 1
People Weekly 03/29/2004 pg. 53
New York Times 05/30/2004 pg. 12