Cover of The Black Violin

The Black Violin

There were many musical souls adrift on that raft of silence that is Venice. There was the music of Johannes Karelsky.There was the music of Erasmus, the violin maker. And there was the music of war. But of that, the two men never spoke.From the internationally acclaimed author of "Snow" comes a timeless tale of love and music set against the romantic backdrop of eighteenth-century Venice.

Read more

In 1797, the violin prodigy Johannes Karelsky arrives in Venice after fighting with Napoleon's army in the Italian campaign. After the war, he boards with an aged violin maker named Erasmus who created the legendary "Black Violin," which he forbids Johannes to touch because, as he says, "Once you have tasted it, you will never be the same again." Johannes becomes obsessed with the idea of playing this violin as well as finding the woman who saved his life when he was injured in battle.

Beautifully written and highly evocative, "The Black Violin" interweaves Johannes's quest for love and the history of this mysterious instrument in a narrative that is sure to resonate long after the last page is turned.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 144 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Black Violin? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Black Violin. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Savior Shares historical fiction, fiction, music
  2. Violin Dreams Shares music, violin
  3. Cross Dog Blues: Book One of A Great Long Story to Tell Shares historical fiction, music, fiction
  4. The House of Silence Shares historical fiction, music, fiction

“People who read The Black Violin tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Canone Inverso
  2. David Golder
  3. Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection
  4. Wild Harmonies: A Life of Music and Wolves

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about music), start with these.”

  1. The Pianist in the Dark
  2. I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive
  3. The Metropolis Case
  4. Antonietta

“If it was the music that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Year the Music Changed
  2. Longing
  3. Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits: A Novel
  4. Violin Playing As I Teach It

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Rainaldi Quartet
  2. Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust--Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind's Darkest Hour
  3. Paganini's Ghost
  4. The Keeper of Secrets