THE VIOLINIST by Calmo Rose

MEMOIR/HISTORY

THE VIOLINIST counterpoises the universe of childhood on a background of the Jewish Holocaust in Romania. It tells the story of Calmo (Lică), whose family is banned from Bucharest due to their Jewishness, as he bears witness to a world that has lost its humanity during the Second World War. In it he falls in love with a pianist, a Jewish girl named Luţa; he also recounts how his own artistry playing the violin charms both enemies and friends, Romanians, Germans, and Jews. Lică’s violin is today transformed into the author's pen, remastering these early experiences with maturity, yet somehow maintaining a tragic innocence. With its cinematographic narrative that blends humor with tragedy and love with music, THE VIOLINIST easily reminds one of Roberto Benigni’s LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL and Roman Polanski’s THE PIANIST.


“[A] moving and well written account of a child prodigy…in wartime Romania.”
Randolph L. Braham, City University of New York

“The story is terrifying, touching, and in places also very funny.”
Robert Melson, False Papers: Deception and Survival in the Holocaust

“With sadness and humor, Calmo Rose describes the life of a family of Jewish refugees.”
Radu Ioanid, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D. C.

Calmo Rose is a Bucharest-based journalist and writer, author of more than twenty books on various social, cultural, ethical, and international themes—some of which have been translated into several languages.

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