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La pianista de Varsovia: una mujer atrapada entre la pasión por la música, el amor y sus ideales
La historia comienza en un barrio de clase media-alta en Lodz, Polonia, donde el padre de Mia, estudiante de música clásica, trabaja como médico, pero todo cambia cuando los nazis invaden el país.
286 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
October 17, 2018
Very close to being perfect, but there were a few things that lessened my enjoyment. Songbird is Walter Zacharius' first and sadly only novel. It tells the story of Mia, a young Jewish woman who becomes a resistance fighter and later, an Allied spy. It's a book that resists categorization. Is it a war epic? Spy thriller? Love story? It's all three, and it manages to blend these genres relatively well. All Mia's romantic entanglements are tragic, and the action scenes and intrigue are also well-handled.
The good: The plot and writing style are both very strong. It lacks the weaknesses most debut novels suffer from. Zacharius obviously did his research, and I truly felt immersed in war-torn Europe throughout. Of course, he had the added bonus of being there when the Allies liberated France. Most of the characters (Mia in particular) were very well-developed and had distinct personalities. I loved her relationships with both Wolf and Vinnie. This book could have been your typical thriller, all action and over-the-top set pieces but thematically hollow. It's hardly without its flaws, but Zacharius does a chilling job portraying the plight- and eventual extermination- of European Jews. The scenes showing Mia's grief were extremely poignant and heartrending.
The bad: There is a lot of sex for sex's sake. It didn't ruin the book for me, but it was annoying all the same. The part where Mia got a job at an S&M brothel was particularly ludicrous. I also feel like there were times (especially toward the end) where the plot dragged on much longer than it should have. I admit I skimmed over those. And what do we get for it? An incredibly short and disappointing epilogue. This, ultimately, was the other reason why I can't give a full five stars. I fell in love with Mia and Vinnie's romance and wanted to see them end up together. So it just felt very aggravating, seeing them meet again 30 years later and Vinnie married to someone else. I wanted to know what happened to them after that. Does Vinnie leave his wife to be with her? We never find out.
Tragically, Songbird was Zacharius's first and last novel. He was apparently working on a second book at one point, but that sadly never came to fruition. It's a shame, since he was clearly a talented writer.
Just an observational note: I'm also not sure if this book is intended for teens or adults. Of course, just because a book has a teen protagonist doesn't necessarily make it YA. The cover and plot summary are very YA-y, but again, I'm not sure. There IS a lot of explicit sexual content, so with that in mind it would be more appropriate for older teenagers. Of course, your mileage may vary.
The good: The plot and writing style are both very strong. It lacks the weaknesses most debut novels suffer from. Zacharius obviously did his research, and I truly felt immersed in war-torn Europe throughout. Of course, he had the added bonus of being there when the Allies liberated France. Most of the characters (Mia in particular) were very well-developed and had distinct personalities. I loved her relationships with both Wolf and Vinnie. This book could have been your typical thriller, all action and over-the-top set pieces but thematically hollow. It's hardly without its flaws, but Zacharius does a chilling job portraying the plight- and eventual extermination- of European Jews. The scenes showing Mia's grief were extremely poignant and heartrending.
The bad: There is a lot of sex for sex's sake. It didn't ruin the book for me, but it was annoying all the same. The part where Mia got a job at an S&M brothel was particularly ludicrous. I also feel like there were times (especially toward the end) where the plot dragged on much longer than it should have. I admit I skimmed over those. And what do we get for it? An incredibly short and disappointing epilogue. This, ultimately, was the other reason why I can't give a full five stars. I fell in love with Mia and Vinnie's romance and wanted to see them end up together. So it just felt very aggravating, seeing them meet again 30 years later and Vinnie married to someone else. I wanted to know what happened to them after that. Does Vinnie leave his wife to be with her? We never find out.
Tragically, Songbird was Zacharius's first and last novel. He was apparently working on a second book at one point, but that sadly never came to fruition. It's a shame, since he was clearly a talented writer.
Just an observational note: I'm also not sure if this book is intended for teens or adults. Of course, just because a book has a teen protagonist doesn't necessarily make it YA. The cover and plot summary are very YA-y, but again, I'm not sure. There IS a lot of explicit sexual content, so with that in mind it would be more appropriate for older teenagers. Of course, your mileage may vary.
April 3, 2010
YUCK! I have found some good books on the bargain tables of various bookstores throughout the years. "Traveler" by Richard Adams was one such book. However, this book does not rank amongst such "finds". If I could give "Songbird" a half star rating, I would do so. It began well enough, but the plot meandered and the development of the characters was poor. In short, the book was a major disappointment for me.
September 12, 2011
There were times I liked this,then there were times when I wished it would move a little faster. My understanding is that this is Mr. Zacharius first book. For a first I thought it was well written. I could have done with a little less on the sex side. Yes Mia ends up working in a house of ill repute but this story had more to it than that. I did not think I was reading a romance, but rather a historical based fiction book, based on the trails and tribulations that the Jews went through during this time in history. So less focus on the sex .
May 6, 2018
This is the story of Marisa Levy, a young Polish Jew who enjoyed an upper middle class life with her family in Lodz in the 1930s. Her father was a physician and her brother Jozef studied in Krakow. Marisa’s parents recognized early that she had musical talent and sent her to the Lycee in Paris where she was studying piano and planning for a musical career. But when the Germans invaded Poland in October 1939 Marisa’s entire world changed. Lodz became a German capital with German street names and German officers strutting in the boulevards and shops. There were no more music lessons or dates with Jean-Phillip Cadoux her teenage boyfriend in Paris. Borders were closed, Jews were not permitted to travel and possession of a radio was punishable by death. Shops owned by Jews were vandalized and goods were stolen as the police stood by and did nothing. Limits were placed on the food and fuel Jews could buy and Marisa’s father was not permitted to work out of his clinic cutting off his access to the medicine he needed to treat his patients. Eventually the family was forced to turn over their home to the Nazis and move to the Ghetto. Any who refused to go were either shot on the spot or hauled off to labor camps. Young able bodied men were grabbed off the streets and recruited into the German Army or banished to hard labour.
Marisa was sent to work in a button factory where for ten hours a day, six days a week she sewed buttons on German uniforms. Her father tried to bribe an official for documents and safe passage out of the country using a cache of hidden diamonds, but he was betrayed and the family ended up in a boxcar headed to the camps at Treblinka. Mia escaped when her father pushed her through an open door of the train and from there, hungry, exhausted and hopeless, she eventually made her way to Warsaw. There she works with a small secret gang of boys led by an eighteen year old youth named Wolfe, who tried to do whatever they could to help their Jewish brethren. Marisa did errands, sold cigarettes to Nazi soldiers and helped the gang sneak guns into the ghetto. But when the Nazis closed in on the gang, Marisa and Wolfe were forced to flee, eventually reaching Switzerland where Wolfe was shot down on the shores of Lake Constance. Marisa stabbed and killed the German army officer who apprehended them and was forced to continue on her journey alone. Eventually she made her way to America to live with an Aunt and Uncle in New York City. There she met Vinnie Sforza, a young clarinet player at a local dance. The two fell in love and planned a life together. But Marisa remained haunted by fears of what had happened to her family, who were now in the camps in Auschwitz. She had little hope they were still alive, but was anxious to know their fate.
Given an opportunity to work in the Resistance against the Nazis, Marisa leaves the States and travels to England for training as a double agent. Once her training is complete she parachutes into France with two other trained spies and begins work in a Paris brothel where she is forced to pleasure the Nazis officers she hates. When the German forces are eventually driven back and Paris is freed, Marisa is almost killed by a mob of starving French locals who knew she had been friendly with the enemy. She is rescued by the allies and wanders aimlessly in the countryside until she finally settles in Palestine on a small plot of land in a kibbutz with other Jews. But she is forever haunted by her experience in the war. Her life is desolate and broken, scarred by memories of her broken family. It is a sad and tragic story and not easy to read.
Zacharius has divided his story into three parts. The first tells Marisa’s story of her life before the occupation, a time when she is sad and unhappy because she has lost her lovely life in Paris. It is also a time when she regrets being a Jew as the family loses everything that is dear to them and is forced into the Ghetto. After their failed attempt to leave the country the family is herded into trains headed to the camps. It follows Marisa escape and leaves the fortunes of her remaining family in limbo. The second section covers her life in America, her growing romantic relationship with Vinnie and her decision to return to Europe to find out the fate of her parents. The third section covers her life in France working for the Resistance and events at the end of the war. The novel then ends abruptly and readers are shifted to Marisa’s final days in Palestine without details of the progress of her life as she got there.
Given the horror and reality of war, the conclusion appears unrealistic, although it does provide a gentle way to end this very sad and horrific tale of a courageous woman who left behind the man she loved and risked her life to avenge the deaths of her family.
Walter Zacharius is the founder and CEO of Kensington Publishing and this is his first novel. Given he was eighty when he wrote it, he has done a credible job. As he notes, it is much easier to publish a book then to write one! The story is enhanced by his first hand knowledge of the war as an American World War II veteran who witnessed the liberation of Paris, adding credence to some of the historical details he has included in his story.
Marisa was sent to work in a button factory where for ten hours a day, six days a week she sewed buttons on German uniforms. Her father tried to bribe an official for documents and safe passage out of the country using a cache of hidden diamonds, but he was betrayed and the family ended up in a boxcar headed to the camps at Treblinka. Mia escaped when her father pushed her through an open door of the train and from there, hungry, exhausted and hopeless, she eventually made her way to Warsaw. There she works with a small secret gang of boys led by an eighteen year old youth named Wolfe, who tried to do whatever they could to help their Jewish brethren. Marisa did errands, sold cigarettes to Nazi soldiers and helped the gang sneak guns into the ghetto. But when the Nazis closed in on the gang, Marisa and Wolfe were forced to flee, eventually reaching Switzerland where Wolfe was shot down on the shores of Lake Constance. Marisa stabbed and killed the German army officer who apprehended them and was forced to continue on her journey alone. Eventually she made her way to America to live with an Aunt and Uncle in New York City. There she met Vinnie Sforza, a young clarinet player at a local dance. The two fell in love and planned a life together. But Marisa remained haunted by fears of what had happened to her family, who were now in the camps in Auschwitz. She had little hope they were still alive, but was anxious to know their fate.
Given an opportunity to work in the Resistance against the Nazis, Marisa leaves the States and travels to England for training as a double agent. Once her training is complete she parachutes into France with two other trained spies and begins work in a Paris brothel where she is forced to pleasure the Nazis officers she hates. When the German forces are eventually driven back and Paris is freed, Marisa is almost killed by a mob of starving French locals who knew she had been friendly with the enemy. She is rescued by the allies and wanders aimlessly in the countryside until she finally settles in Palestine on a small plot of land in a kibbutz with other Jews. But she is forever haunted by her experience in the war. Her life is desolate and broken, scarred by memories of her broken family. It is a sad and tragic story and not easy to read.
Zacharius has divided his story into three parts. The first tells Marisa’s story of her life before the occupation, a time when she is sad and unhappy because she has lost her lovely life in Paris. It is also a time when she regrets being a Jew as the family loses everything that is dear to them and is forced into the Ghetto. After their failed attempt to leave the country the family is herded into trains headed to the camps. It follows Marisa escape and leaves the fortunes of her remaining family in limbo. The second section covers her life in America, her growing romantic relationship with Vinnie and her decision to return to Europe to find out the fate of her parents. The third section covers her life in France working for the Resistance and events at the end of the war. The novel then ends abruptly and readers are shifted to Marisa’s final days in Palestine without details of the progress of her life as she got there.
Given the horror and reality of war, the conclusion appears unrealistic, although it does provide a gentle way to end this very sad and horrific tale of a courageous woman who left behind the man she loved and risked her life to avenge the deaths of her family.
Walter Zacharius is the founder and CEO of Kensington Publishing and this is his first novel. Given he was eighty when he wrote it, he has done a credible job. As he notes, it is much easier to publish a book then to write one! The story is enhanced by his first hand knowledge of the war as an American World War II veteran who witnessed the liberation of Paris, adding credence to some of the historical details he has included in his story.
January 26, 2015
Another side to WWII. The fact that most of the characters are flawed makes the story more realistic.
January 22, 2024
I read this book in 2 days, so it certainly wasn’t boring or slow-moving. I felt like the story didn’t really develop though and it wasn’t very moving or powerful. It was a good book, just not excellent. The low ratings are because this book has a lot of sex scenes in the second half. Don’t read this if you’re prudish. The sex scenes I think were vital to the character. She got herself into this situation and then enjoyed hurting Nazis and it ultimately destroyed her. There were quite a few things that weren’t explained well though, like why she didn’t just leave the mansion, why she never went back to New York when she was so happy there, why she didn’t seek out Vinnie after the war when she had no confirmation he was dead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2020
I didn't care much for this book and am very glad that I only paid $.25 for it at a library book sale. Mia's character actually annoyed me and I'm not exactly sure why that is. The brothel scenes were a bit much to stomach and the overkill sex scenes disgusted me. But I am glad to have finished the book. Now I can move onto a better read more suited to my taste.
July 5, 2018
This is a heart touching story of anguish, life, love and trying to overcome despite the odds. For Mia all of that means a journey in world war II makes her a warrior in a militia who are trying to save others and then an escape to Switzerland and eventually America.
February 11, 2018
This book seemed like it would be good and parts of it were but coming on the end it felt like it was all about sex.The book moved at a slow pace as well and included so many stereotypes.
July 21, 2018
A girl narrowly escapes a trip to Auschwitz. She ends up working with the OSS out of a Paris brothel... vowing revenge for her family who were sent there. Quite interesting and sad.
June 19, 2019
Excellent book and author!!!
May 12, 2020
The book got better as it went. A great, but horrible, story. Well written. I'd definitely read another by this author.
Read
November 4, 2020Excellent, the best!
January 25, 2021
It started out very promising and lost it along the way.
April 19, 2022
I had hoped for better when I started the book. Unfortunately the story dragged and included unnecessary sex exploits that never explained how it relates to the plot. Disappointing.
March 11, 2017
The story line is interesting but the story itself never takes flight. It moves along but the heart of the author's story never comes alive. You fell as if only the characters were sharply defined, you could feel the story but I didn't. Not bad but certainly not good enough to suggest someone else read it.
February 20, 2017
If I could give this book zero stars, I would. I picked it up at the library because the story about Polish Jews and the undercover movement sounded interesting. However, the content included too much sex, including graphic S&M content, and that overrode any entertaining historical content. I cannot recommend this book.
Read
January 24, 2017"Songbird" is a compelling and sweeping saga that will take readers on a harrowing journey -- from the ghettos of Warsaw to the occupied streets of Paris -- during the darkest days of the Second World War.The story of "Songbird" is told through the eyes of Mia, a beautiful Jewish teenager who loses everything in the onslaught of World War II: her upper-middle-class home in Lodz, Poland, her classical music studies, and her entire family who perishes at Auschwitz. Mia embarks on a perilous odyssey through war-torn Poland to join the ranks of a secret cadre of Jewish militia who have sworn to save their brethren, before escaping to Switzerland and then to America.
Determined to avenge her family's deaths, she leaves behind the man she loves and risks her life once more to return to Europe as a double agent and undermine the Germans in the final days of the war. Just when it seems that pain and loss will be her permanent companions, a surprising letter offers the prospect of a very different outcome. She ends up in a kibbutz in Israel.
Brimming with historical detail, passion, and intrigue, "Songbird" draws richly upon the author's own experiences as an American soldier in World War II, making history come alive with a unique freshness and emotional candor rarely ever seen in a first novel. (less)
Determined to avenge her family's deaths, she leaves behind the man she loves and risks her life once more to return to Europe as a double agent and undermine the Germans in the final days of the war. Just when it seems that pain and loss will be her permanent companions, a surprising letter offers the prospect of a very different outcome. She ends up in a kibbutz in Israel.
Brimming with historical detail, passion, and intrigue, "Songbird" draws richly upon the author's own experiences as an American soldier in World War II, making history come alive with a unique freshness and emotional candor rarely ever seen in a first novel. (less)
June 13, 2023
* 3.2/5
I recently read Walter Zacharius' Songbird (I read it the few chapters back in 2018 and then in full in 2020) nevertheless it exceeded my beyond bounded expectations that the story follows a historical Jewish family living in Poland during the german occupation in 1939-1945 and concetrated in the Nazi-liked camps somewhere, but she had to struggled her independence when she escape and residing in Neutral switzerland, and the free occupied France from the hand's off Vichy regime, the woman describes by her dreams when she was sleeping currently in Beirut in 1975 and the dream-like narrative captures the emotions of every character with great precision.
Although sometimes this book takes an explicit approach to depicting certain scenarios, (like eh, TOO MUCH CURSING "NEVERMIND THAT THE AUTHOR LIKES TO READ SOME ACTION BOOK WRITTEN IN THE 70S TILL 90S") although, he was the founder of Kesington Publishing but it does somewith great scope and awe that make it completely worth the read.
I recently read Walter Zacharius' Songbird (I read it the few chapters back in 2018 and then in full in 2020) nevertheless it exceeded my beyond bounded expectations that the story follows a historical Jewish family living in Poland during the german occupation in 1939-1945 and concetrated in the Nazi-liked camps somewhere, but she had to struggled her independence when she escape and residing in Neutral switzerland, and the free occupied France from the hand's off Vichy regime, the woman describes by her dreams when she was sleeping currently in Beirut in 1975 and the dream-like narrative captures the emotions of every character with great precision.
Although sometimes this book takes an explicit approach to depicting certain scenarios, (like eh, TOO MUCH CURSING "NEVERMIND THAT THE AUTHOR LIKES TO READ SOME ACTION BOOK WRITTEN IN THE 70S TILL 90S") although, he was the founder of Kesington Publishing but it does somewith great scope and awe that make it completely worth the read.
March 8, 2012
Había leído muy buenas críticas de este libro, y con su atrayente temática sobre el holocausto nazi, me atrajo hasta sus redes. Sin embargo, no había leído una novela tan mala desde hacía mucho tiempo.
Para empezar, es una obra pretenciosa, que se disfraza de novela de intriga, o de novela romántica, o incluso histórica; sin que llegue a aparecerse a ninguna de ellas. Le faltan elementos de suspense, datos históricos y definición de los personajes.
Además, pretende acercarse con orgullo a un tema controvertido; no obstante, ni lo trata de manera exhaustiva ni de manera original. Se podría haber hecho una gran novela con los elementos con los que se contaba, pero o no ha sabido o le ha sido imposible.....
En fin, lo que está claro es que se me han quitado las ganas de leer más novelas de este autor (que no sé si las habrá, pues no tengo ganas ni de investigarlo).
Para empezar, es una obra pretenciosa, que se disfraza de novela de intriga, o de novela romántica, o incluso histórica; sin que llegue a aparecerse a ninguna de ellas. Le faltan elementos de suspense, datos históricos y definición de los personajes.
Además, pretende acercarse con orgullo a un tema controvertido; no obstante, ni lo trata de manera exhaustiva ni de manera original. Se podría haber hecho una gran novela con los elementos con los que se contaba, pero o no ha sabido o le ha sido imposible.....
En fin, lo que está claro es que se me han quitado las ganas de leer más novelas de este autor (que no sé si las habrá, pues no tengo ganas ni de investigarlo).
October 30, 2014
This is a great story based on the author's own experiences in the war. I liked the different approach to the story, told through the voice of Mia, a Jewish teenager. Her family is killed in the concentration camps, she survives and goes on to work with the resistance. She lives through the ghetto in a war-ridden Poland, she escapes this to go to America where she finds love, and she heads back to Paris to save her people from the Nazis. A lot of good historical details in this book along with suspense, intrigue and horrors bring the story of Mia to life.
December 4, 2008
this book seemed like it was going to be good and moving considering its about the struggle of a jewish girl during the Holocaust but as it went along it got more and more provocative and all the sex related things that seemed to pile up by the end of the book which really took away from the story line for me. i found it disapointing when i had finsihed it.
October 24, 2011
I loved reading this book and I loved Mia. My heart just broke for her and her family and her American lover. I really liked that this book took place outside of the concentration camps and told about other parts of the war and what the Jews who were not taken to the camps or escaped them were doing during that time. I had never seen that side of things in a book, or anywhere for that matter.
June 6, 2016
I loved this novel and I have read it multiple times. Mia is a strong girl, and it is astounding to think that she kept herself alive throughout the horrors that she went through, such as working in a brothel to gather information for the allies. It is a very sad story and I can't say much good ever happened to Mia in it.
August 27, 2016
I read this book last year I think and it was really really good, I don't really know if this book was based in a true story but I can't believe someone could have been through so much, there was so much going on throughout Mia's life. This book shows another perspective about what we all know happened back then. It's different and besides the message it is full of adventures.
December 8, 2015
Libro intenso, aunque a ratos se hacía algo lento, poco a poco te va envolviendo con la historia trágica de Mia, superviviente y luchadora, que pasa de huir de los nazis a enfrentarse a ellos de formas poco ortodoxas.
El autor recrea la historia de Mia como una vida de dolor y superación, de soledad y de supervivencia.
El autor recrea la historia de Mia como una vida de dolor y superación, de soledad y de supervivencia.
March 31, 2009
Enjoyed this novel and was surprised it was the first one written by the author, who, as it were, is a WWII veteran. It centers around a Jewish girl, who lives with her family in Poland......goes from there to her life as she got older. Finished it up within a day.
March 17, 2009
I really enjoyed this book. Hated to see it end. Wanted to know more about Mia and Vinnie's lives. World War II was a horrible time for all the Jews. Makes a person think how others suffer during time of war.
dnf
March 18, 2011I started this but didn't get far. It's one of those books that has so man foreign words and names scattered about, I was grumbling on page three and the heroine... my word. I wanted to jump in and smack the snot out of her. Did not relish 200 some pages of her. Moving on.
May 27, 2008
Found this book by accident and really liked it. A very young girl who survives the invasion of Poland and her going back to help spy on the Germans a few years later. Survival, betrayal and love.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews