What a beautiful story. Steil has captivated me with her storytelling and eloquence. Since historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, I tend to be hard on authors. However, this book hit all the right chords. From the characters to the settings, I was so happy to spend time within these pages.

an unusual story combining history of a people from europe with spanish speaking latin america. it piques my interest in learning more....

Exile Music by Jennifer Steil was a beautifully written story about a young Austrian girl that grew up during the Nazi invasion of Vienna. Jennifer Steil masterfully wrote about the hardships, horrors, challenges, losses, hopes and struggles and finally the ultimate journey this brave girl and her family endured. The words flowed and held me spellbound. I became so absorbed in the story. Steil effortlessly intertwined the various settings with historical significance. It is a coming of age story that will transport you back to one of the darkest times in our history and also offer a ray of hope.

Orly Zingel grew up in Vienna, Austria during the 1930's. Her childhood was happy, carefree and full of music. Her mother, Julia, was a renown opera singer and her father, Jakob played the viola in the Vienna Philharmonic. Orly was so used to hearing her father practice his pieces in their spacious apartment and her mother sang all the time. She loved when her mother allowed her to go to the opera and hear her sing on stage. Orly also had an older brother, Willi, whom she adored. He was kind and charismatic. He affectionately called her Peanut and there was nothing he wouldn't do for her.

Growing up, Orly's best friend, Anneliese, lived in the apartment directly above her own. Anneliese's apartment was not as grand as Orly's but neither girl seemed to notice. Orly and Anneliese were frequently found in each other's apartment playing with each other whenever they could. They were inseparable. One of Orly's and Anneliese's favorite things to do was to invent stories. They often made up stories about things that would happen in their pretend world of Friedengluckhasenland. In their made up world of Friedengluckhasenland, the two best friends, one Jewish and one not, learned to go there in their minds to escape the growing changes going on around them. When the holiday Fasching occurred in 1938, Orly's and Anneliese's carefree and encompassing friendship was altered drastically. Orly was no longer welcomed into Anneliese's apartment. Anneliese's parents did not want their daughter being friends with a Jewish child. Both girls were devastated. Regardless of the restrictions Anneliese's parents put on their friendship they found ways of defying them. Orly's peaceful life was about to be turned upside down that year with the arrival of the German Nazis.

Orly's sheltered life came to a crashing halt in 1938. It was no longer safe for Jews to be in Vienna. Orly's brother, Willi, departed on his own. He would try and escape to Switzerland. Jakob relentlessly tried to obtain visas for his extended family's passage to Bolivia. Bolivia was the only country allowing Jews safe entry. After so many numerous attempts and trips to the Bolivian Consulate, only Jakob, Julia and Orly finally procured refugee visas to a town called La Paz in Bolivia. It was situated high in the Bolivian Andes. They were unable to get visas for Orly's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Sadly and reluctantly they had to leave them behind and hope that eventually they would be granted visas as well.

Assimilating into the culture and acclimating to the language of La Paz was difficult for Orly's family. Orly forged her path with more ease than her parents. There were many Jewish refugees in their community. Slowly, Jakob, Orly's father, found his way through his music. He started giving music lessons to other refugees and then to some of the locals. Jakob even began to play with others and was able to form a band and later created and joined an orchestra. Julia, Orly's mother, had the hardest time adopting to their new life. Always on her mind was her son, Willi. Was he safe? Would he find his way to join them in La Paz?

I knew that Jewish refugees found their way to safety in South America. However, in all the books that I have read, I had never heard of Bolivia being a country that opened its arms to Jews during this horrific time. It was quite endearing to read about Orly's life and how she was able to absorb herself into the culture and life of La Paz and became one with it. Her friendships, experiences, and the love she found both in the people around her and in the way she came to feel about Bolivia and La Paz in particular, was beautiful. This was a story that will touch hearts. It was heartbreaking and yet uplifting, beautiful, sad and happy. I highly recommend this book.

I received a complimentary copy of Exile Music from Viking Publishers through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

What a fascinating book! The author has defined the fictional plight of a Jewish Viennese family in the late 1930's during the throes of Nazism so realistically. The details and horror of Orly's family being forced out of their native land while being betrayed by neighbors, both physically and mentally, is so well conveyed.
When Orly's family is uprooted and compelled to resettle in Bolivia, a country so foreign to what they know, the desperation, but determination, is apparent. The emotional roller coaster of adapting to new surroundings by the characters show all facets of doing just that.
It's obvious that the author researched this book so well. Her examination of the human spirit under the most difficult of times was so well done, creating a memorable read.

“Home has been with us all along, it lived in the air shimmering around her father’s strings.”
Exile Music is a coming of age story AND a historical fiction saga that begins with the whispers of WWII and ends in the mountains of Bolivia decades later, following a family who is able to flee their home in Berlin before the start of the war. It’s been ages since I’ve read a HF that felt so sweepingly full of character, place, beautiful writing, depth and a sense of fulfillment in the end. I cared immensely for Orlanthe, whom you meet as a child, and her happiness as she grows into adulthood. I also loved the Bolivian setting, which felt like a welcome change of pace from most WWII fiction as well as young girl’s coming of age and finding herself against the backdrop of war and upheaval... I highly recommend this one!

Incredible. Sweeping, moving, my heart broke on every single page. What a beautiful story told to us from the eyes of a young girl, aged 10, on the events before Austria fell to the Nazis, during and their escape to Bolivia and after the war and her grounding herself forever in Bolivia. That is most definitely not summing up this beautiful story of two friends, one girl's flight for safety and building a life no longer in Austria as an Austrian but instead as a Bolivian in Bolivia. Beautiful.

Fully formed thoughts (kind of!) posted here on the Literary Hoarders site: http://www.literaryhoarders.com/5-star-rating/exile-music-by-jennifer-steil/

When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March of 1938, it was the beginning of the end of Austria’s Jews.

Vienna had long been home to a flourishing Jewish community, with many illustrious figures active in literature, science and the arts. Among them were many members of the famed Viennese Philharmonic under the direction of Bruno Walter, also Jewish.

When the Nazis marched in, those Jewish musicians lost their jobs. And most of them lost their lives, unless they were able to emigrate somewhere else. The problem was, almost no country would take them. But Bolivia did.

In her novel Exile Music, Jennifer Steil tells the story of a family that flees Vienna for safe harbor in the mountains of Bolivia. It centers around a young girl, Orly, daughter of two musicians with the Viennese Philharmonic, as she struggles with traumas of loss and war and eventually adapts to her new homeland.

Exile Music is a fascinating look at a little known corner of World War II history, with salient lessons for our current global refugee crisis.

Listen to Jennifer Steil talk with Writer's Voice with Francesca Rheannon here:
https://www.writersvoice.net/2020/07/jennifer-steil-exile-music-l-annette-binder-the-vanishing-sky/

This is a beautiful book about a family during WWII. It reminded me in some ways of "The Book of Lost Names", which I read recently, although the characters and their story are different they experience similar things.

Orly is the daughter of a viola player in the Vienna Philharmonic, and her mother, an opera singer.
I thought it was wonderful that Steil tells this story through the eyes of the young daughter, Orly, who lives in a world of fantasy, together with her non-Jewish best friend, the downstairs neighbor Annaliese. As Austrians and Jews, they are shocked when the Nazis take over and they lose their freedoms and way of life. Once her familiar life is taken away Orly doesn't completely understand what is happening around her and what things may lie ahead. As they are forced through different areas and finally end up in Bolivia; Orly, though she has suffered along with her family, is young enough that the strange new world intrigues her. A place of exile to her parents, Bolivia is to Orly a place of its own, and she begins to unravel its secrets.

I really loved that the story continued following Orly all the way through womanhood. I liked seeing her life and the range of its issues, including figuring out her sexuality, the extent of friendships, and the limitation of her nationality. She lived a remarkable life and this is a truly remarkable story.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

the cover drew me in, the story kept me going. This YA book is an excellent look at a Jewish family who fled Nazi Germany for Bolivia. I didn't know about Bolivia being a refuge so I doubt many younger readers will.

Jennifer Steil's "Exile Music" tells the story of a sophisticated Jewish family of musicians, who flee the Nazis from their home in Vienna to make a new life in the mountains of Bolivia, the only place where they can find refuge. It's a stark contrast of both geography and culture, and their gradual and uneven adjustment is told from the point of view of young Orly.

Despite all the challenges, Orly makes a good life for herself in Bolivia. This extraordinary story has a highly satisfying conclusion with two significant reunions for Orly and an important choice to make. An excellent and engaging read!

I am always thankful to learn something new from a piece of historical fiction, and this book tells the story of thousands of Jews turned away from almost every country, but accepted into Bolivia. Orly is the daughter of a viola player in the Vienna Philharmonic, and her mother, an opera singer. As Austrians and Jews, they are shocked when the Nazis take over and they lose their freedoms and way of life. Finally getting to Bolivia, they have to learn another language and a culture so different from European culture. I highly recommend this absorbing and beautifully written novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This fascinating, deftly-plotted and well-characterized novel by the author of The Ambassador's Wife follows a family of Jewish musicians in the 1930's, Austrian natives who never suspect that their loyalty and citizenship will be soon challenged by the darkest of political force. When, in 1939, the borders of most of the world's countries had closed to the Jews, there was still one window. Bolivia, that landlocked country whose Andean capital looms at 12,o00 feet, was accepting applications for visas. Exile Music is the story of one family's emigration to that farthest shore, and encompasses several overlooked corners of history.

Wisely, Steil tells her story through the eyes of their young daughter, Orly, an imaginative child who lives in a world of fantasy, together with her non-Jewish best friend, the downstairs neighbor Annaliese--to whom she is absolutely devoted. The two girls live inside the story of a land in which rabbits live safe from their neighbors and have glorious adventures, a perfect but unconscious parable for what we know is gong to threaten their idyllic childhood. As the noose of the Nazi threat gradually closes around Austria, the musician parents discover that talent and fame is no protection against nationalized hatred.

Eventually the violist father is dismissed from the symphony and the singer mother not only from opera roles but from teaching as well. Deprived of their livelihood and eventually, their house, which is owned by the mother but turned over to Annaliese's Aryan family on threat of denunciation, they are eventually forced into the Jewish quarter where they live crushed in with thousands of others to await an uncertain future.

Determined to save their teenage son, they send him away to try to make it to Switzerland, while they themselves make the daily rounds of the consulates, where heir desperation is met with denial after denial. Finally, a miracle--Bolivia is still accepting applications. The rest of the novel unfolds from there.

What is remarkable about this novel is how nuanced Steil is in her portrayal of the situation of the Viennese Jews. It works because of her wise choice of protagonist, a brave, curious, imaginative child, who see the trees but not the forest. Orly doesn't realize what is coming as her parents do--as a child she is focused on the minutae of every day, and her world is experienced in small details which affect her directly. Steil lets these stand for the whole, and the story moves through eviction, concentration in the ghetto, Kristallnacht, the desperate flight to Genoa, with the fragmented vision of her protagonist, making it both vivid and highly readable.

Then we are in La Paz, where Orly's curiosity and imagination, her gift of friendship, opens up a world for her, a world whose the possibilities are out of reach for her parents, broken by grief at the loss of their country and the loved ones they've left behind. Newly dropped into the lunar landscape of Andean Bolivia, they cluster with the other emigres, speak German, and long for a lost world.

But Orly, though she has suffered along with her family, is young enough that the strange new world intrigues her. She befriends a young boy who lives in the same house and through him, learns Spanish and begins to send out roots into the new land. She slowly makes friends with a young indigenous girl in the marketplace, learning more about the native culture into which she's arrived. A place of exile to the parents, Bolivia is to Orly a place of its own, and she begins to unravel its secrets.

The story follows Orly all the way through womanhood, and the pacing of it, how far the past extends, the scope of the story and the range of its issues, including bisexuality and homosexuality, the extent and limitation of friendship, the meaning and limitation of nationality and many others, is in itself remarkable.

Growing up in Vienna, Orly's life is filled with music. Her father is a viola player, and her mother is an opera singer. When the German's begin enforcing restrictions against Jews, her older brother is sent away for his safety and Orly and her parents flees to Bolivia, the only country they can get a visa for. Orly and her father begin to slowly adjust to their strange new life, but her mother seems lost.

This book was very hard to put down. I have never read anything about Bolivia, and the culture and people were fascinated. Orly was a very likeable character, and the relationships she made really added to the story. Overall, highly recommended.

World War II was such a horrific time to live through. The war was going on, you never knew where you were safe, and you had to rely on other people for everything from food to shelter to clothing. Now imagine that as a young girl. Orly is that girl. She is young, she lives an ideal life with her parents and brother with her best friend living in the apartment above her. Until it all changes.

Orly’s story was so interesting. I was invested in the world she was living in. The story told not only of what was happening around her but also what was happening directly in her house and her emotions to those happenings. I could feel her joy in writing the stories of the make believe world with Anneliese, the fear of seeing the Nazi’s invade her neighborhood, the sadness at losing the things that were most familiar to her, and mostly her strength in not knowing what her future held but having to keep her head up, staying strong. She experienced a life that many did not survive, and she knew how lucky she was that she and her parents were able to be together through it all.

I am a World War II fan, it is my favorite era to read about. Jennifer Steil has written an amazing book telling the story of a time where everything was different and the world was a scary place to live. Yet, with the scariness, there is hope, love, and music.

Exile Music on first review was a book that I would have liked, but the more I read it, the less interested I became. I felt like it was overly descriptive and some how agenda pushing. I could never quite connect with the story or the main character because I didn't feel immersed in book or what it was saying. Sometimes it came off choppy. I know reading is an individualistic experience but for me, the descriptiveness and length prevented me from truly enjoying it.

The only reason I didn’t give this five stars is because it took me a while to get hooked. Once I was though, I finished this incredible story in 12 hours.

Since reading Number the Stars in fourth grade, I’ve been fascinated by historical fiction focused on World War II. I’ll never cease to be intrigued by the myriad facets of that time period. Orly’s story is one of the most unique as I’d never heard of the Jewish refugees who made their way to Bolivia. This is a beautifully woven tapestry of a story that had me looking for pictures of the Andes and recordings of Mahler’s compositions.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Orly, the narrator of the story, is just 10 years old and living in Vienna when the Nazis come to power in neighboring Germany. Her parents are deeply involved in the musical and cultural scene in Vienna - her mother is an opera singer and her father is a concert viola player. She has an older brother and lives close to her grandparents, other family members, and close friends. As a Jewish family, their lives will change drastically.

Orly continues sharing her experiences with the reader as she grows up and the family is eventually able to emigrate to Bolivia, the only country that would give them visas. La Paz, a somewhat backward city at high altitude in the Andes, is dramatically different from the Vienna of Orly's early childhood.

As the war nears completion, Orly learns to her horror that the Nazis have now arrived in the city she and her family viewed as a safe haven.

Told from the unique perspective of a young girl, this was a very emotional book. The reader sees the world through Orly's eyes as she matures and understands more and more of the situation.

This is an interesting account of Austria during the rise of Hitler through the eyes of a young girl. With her parents lost in the world of music, Orly is caught up in the cruel realization that even people that know her will treat her differently. Trying to get out of Austria to Bolivia was difficult to say the least. The Bolivian life style was a shock to the Jewish people so it was interesting to see how they adapted. I felt that the inner struggle of feelings for Anneliese did not add to the story. Does every novel written these days need to have an element of political correctness?

This book was so amazing! I've never read anything like it and I loved to hear the less written about plight of the Jewish Refugee from Austria into South America. I couldn't put it down! I found her embracing of the country that both saved her and put her in danger to be so interesting. All the characters were well developed and twists were well hidden. Loved it, highly recommend!