Fire Music
American Lisa comes to Hungary with a sheet of music that belonged to her grandfather Sándor. Kristóf, grandson of Lisa’s uncle Antal and the last survivor of his generation, meets her, and the story shifts between Antal and Sándor in Hungary in 1945, and later, in 2006-07 when Lisa visits; and her subsequent correspondence with Kristóf after she returns to Tacoma.
It’s a moving story of music, family, faith, and survival, with characters in both eras suffering losses that seem irredeemable. Neither Lisa nor Kristóf’s life is going well when she arrives with the sheet music, and Antal, ailing, carries grief and anger decades old. But the music composed and performed by his and Sándor’s Bomb Shelter Quintet lives on, eventually tying the two eras together.
The story will charm music lovers. It practically sings—and weeps—during both the final violent stages of the war and ensuing Soviet occupation and the later era. But its appeal extends to those fascinated by varying angles on WWII, and readers who love history of lesser-known times and settings. A song written by Varga Antal (in Hungary one’s surname comes first) serves as a kind of theme: light over darkness, impossible as that often seems, ironic yet hopeful. Antal wrote a piece entitled “Song to our Enemies,” which Lisa, a composer herself, helps blend with “Light Over Darkness,” for a final performance celebrated in 2007 in Hungary.
Connally’s writing is sensitive and evocative and the two stories engrossing. Some mysteries must be resolved before any sort of redemptive future is possible. We’re enlightened and touched by the Varga family and their lives in Hungary and beyond. Highly recommended.
