Katelyn Bolds asked Liz Tolsma:

What draws you to write about WWII? What was your inspiration for The Melody of the Soul?

Liz Tolsma My interest in the time period started when I heard the story of my father’s family in the Netherlands during the war. That led me to write Snow on the Tulips. As I researched that book, I came across so many other stories begging to be told. That was how The Melody of the Soul came to be. I came across an article one day about the death of the oldest remaining Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz Sommer. Her story about how her music sustained her during a very difficult time in her life drew me in. I watched an interview with her in which she stated that music was her savior. As a Christian, and though I believe that music may have helped sustained her, it was not her savior. That was one interesting thing for me to delve into in the book. I also learned that she lived in the same building as a Nazi officer. Though it was illegal for her to play a musical instrument, she continued to practice her piano. As she and her son were leaving their building to be deported, the officer commented to her how much he enjoyed her music. I began to wonder what would happen if the officer didn’t want to lose that music. From there, the rest of the story flowed.

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