Saving Mozart
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Raphaël Jerusalmy’s debut novel takes the form of the journal of Otto J. Steiner, a former music critic of Jewish descent suffering from tuberculosis in a Salzburg sanatorium in 1939. Drained by his illness and isolated in the gloomy sanatorium, Steiner finds solace only in music. He is horrified to learn that the Nazis’ are transforming a Mozart festival into a fascist event. Steiner feels helpless at first, but an invitation from a friend presents him with an opportunity to fight back. Under the guise of organizing a concert for Nazi officials, Steiner formulates a plan to save Mozart that could dramatically change the course of the war.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A musical attack in Austria in 1939: a singular and overpowering description, with humour, of the first years of Nazism. A cruel story, a bubble of revolt in full inhumanity, a peculiar wildly subversive novel. Sick humour, precise cruelty, rogish gravity, sober and sarcastic tone with a feverish rhythm.