Music is such a huge part of my families life that I couldn’t wait to sit down and read Fire Music by Connie Hampton Connally (Author) I received a copy of in exchange for this review. Inside this post is my affiliate links. If you click on the links and make a purchase I will make a small percentage off the items
As soon as I saw the cover of the book with the orange background and a Violin on the cover with what looks like music notes and smoke at times I new it would be a story I wanted to check into. Then I read the book jacket which drew into the story.
The story is set in WWII during the siege of Budapest. The Germans, then the Russians decimated and befouled the City for several years. Fire Music tells of teenage friends who barely survive the extreme conditions of violence and starvation. thank the LORD we’ve never had to face.
The friends allegiance to one another and their musical talents become their solace and salvation. The Authors shares these friends tragedies they endure together in the terrible years against the later life of Antal Varga.
We learn Antal Carga is one of the surviving musicians, and in the story he is now an old man who is caught up in painful memories and the struggles of his grandson who has lost his way when an American relative unexpectedly arrives, looking for her own path forward.
Together the three of them confront their pasts and find hope. This book brings us suspense, drama and even romance at times. It’s for adults but I could see young adults reading the story and I wish I had shared it with Charlie when we were homeschooling as a book to read not only in his History Class but music class as well.
About the book:
Antal Varga, a Budapest violinist, is 78 years old when a young American stranger places a yellowed music sheet into his hands. With shock he recognizes his own teenage handwriting, for he himself wrote this piece in 1945, when his city was under siege. Desperate to talk with this American woman, Varga enlists his grandson Kristóf to translate; and he finds that the woman, Lisa, shares his family’s painful heritage. Now his grandson and this young American press him for the story behind the music, and especially behind its shattered ending. For decades he’s hidden this story of war, love, jealousy, and loss. Can he bear to tell it now? Can they bear to hear it? Cautiously Varga, Kristóf, and Lisa open the music and its hard secrets, hoping that although pain has extended over generations, perhaps love will extend further still.
Connie Hampton Connally
Connie Hampton Connally has loved music and the written word all her life. She’s published magazine stories and newspaper articles, worked as an editor, and taught high school English and elementary music.
Through teaching music, she discovered the work of Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály, who uplifted his nation through decades of war, fascism and communism. Ms. Connally couldn’t resist this theme of beauty amidst hardship. She wrote The Songs We Hide as a result, and she is currently writing another novel set in Hungary.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
