Susanna, a young Jewish violinist from Australia, arrives in Berlin for a music scholarship in 1989. Germany is on the verge of change as the wall comes down and Susanna is swept along in the history making event.

Under the careful eye of her tutor Stefan, a renowned violinist and grandson of a known nazi, Susanna begins her own composition in memory of her grandmother, Mirla, who was murdered in a concentration camp during the holocaust.

As a forbidden yearning for Stefan begins to unfurl and rumours begin to spread, Susanna finds her life is altered down a path she never intended and the rippling effects will echo through decades.

I loved this book for so many reasons. A lot of books recently are being written about generational trauma stemming from the holocaust and the impact it has on our upbringing and the relationships we have with parents/grandparents.

I think this book handles it really gently and shows how a yearning for knowledge and understanding of the past can shape how lives are lived.

I also really enjoyed the scenes about the wall coming down. Such a pivotal moment in history really foreshadowed the pivot that Susanna’s relationship with Stefan was taking.

A beautiful story of conflict and family.

Thank you to Harlequin Australia, NetGalley and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I begin?
I have a few very strong feelings about this book…

Susanna is a young Australian woman who has been blessed with immense musical talent. We meet her in Berlin in 1989, when the wall comes down. She is studying music under the famous Stefan Heinemeyer, whom she has admired for many years. She falls victim to a scandal following the opportunity of a lifetime, and she flees Berlin, returning to her now hollow life in Australia. She is unable to connect with her love of music as she once did when she arrives home. As her future comes hurtling toward her, Susanna uncovers more of her family’s past, drawing her back to Berlin and the history that called her there in the first place.

It took me a while to warm into the story, as the Susanna that we first meet is juvenile and immature, and I struggled to connect with her. But that in itself is a massive credit to the author, because Susanna is a fully formed young woman with obvious and unlikable flaws. She has a deep obsession with her violin teacher, that felt very immature, and made it difficult to get into the rhythm of the story (all puns intended). But when she talks about the music, it’s so vivid and intense that I found myself wanting to keep reading just to see where that part of the story went.
The narrative is structured into 3 parts, each part a snapshot of a period of Susanna’s life. The first, taking part in Berlin in 1989, the second, in Australia in the 90s/00s and the third, a combination of both in 2019.
Admittedly, the second and third part moved so much smoother and felt more cohesive (and enjoyable) to read. Susanna’s character arc is really beautifully written. The way she navigates the relationships in her life after returning to Australia were so intricate that it felt almost as if the first part of the story was an entirely different book - although, that’s very reflective of how our lives change in the real world. How often do we really think the way we did when we were 20?
Davidow also did a really beautiful job of weaving Susann’a Jewish heritage into her desire to be in Germany. The way that Susanna uncovers aspects of her family’s history during the Holocaust was written with so much care.
Ultimately I enjoyed this book. Susanna’s romantic relationships, while central to the plot, played the harmony to her being more reflective of her own ability to navigate heartbreak.
The only thing I was hoping for, but never got, was a very clear penny dropping moment during the third act about the dynamic between herself and her violin teacher from Berlin. I think just somehow touching on that power imbalance and possible misuse of that imbalance may have been a welcome revelation. Though, its omission is relatively realistic in that we often choose to believe what helps us to maintain peace in our lives.

Besides the deathly slow burn at the start, I think this was a wonderful book and recommend it to those who enjoy stories that span over the course of somebody’s life, as opposed to single snapshots.

Susanna is a talented Jewish-Australian violinist, at twenty she leaves her family in Queensland and she’s been awarded a scholarship to study at the International academy of Music in Berlin and she wants to visit the place where her grandparents were born. Susanna’s at the Brandenburg Gate when the Berlin Wall is torn down in 1989, it was built in 1961 separating East and West Berlin and the story is about the types of walls and barriers humans create and have to breach.

Stefan Heinemeyer is her violin teacher and he admits his grandfather was a Nazi, Susanna begins a composition she calls “Buchenwald” in memory of her grandmother, Mirla Heller who died at the concentration camp forty five years ago and she feels a connection to her and her Jewish heritage. Susanna has a crush on Stefan, he's much older than her and it has devastating and long lasting consequences.

I received a copy of The Girl with the Violin by Shelley Davidow from Harlequin Australia and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I found this to be a very unique story, about two major events in modern history, the Holocaust and the Berlin Wall.

A narrative full of fascinating information about the Berlin and I felt like I was walking the streets with Susanna, and how Germans were still uncomfortable and distanced themselves from what happened during the Second World War, inter-generational trauma, and how music connects the past and the present.

At times while reading the book, I found Susanna’s character annoying and selfish, I had to stop and remember; she was only twenty, Susanna doesn’t make the best choices and that’s normal for her age. Four stars from me, a story about life, love, loss, relationships, trust, making mistakes and amends.

A fascinating study of the impact of the Holocaust over generations. The insights into Berlin, the fall of the wall, the modern way of remembering and the “scar tissue” beneath today’s culture are extremely interesting. Despite an unlikeable protagonist who deprives a son and father of a relationship, the author presents an engaging story which spans countries and decades. The writing style is very careful and considered with each word seeming important to the story. A very interesting book.