"The Butterfly and the Violin" by Kristy Cambron

When Kristy Cambron's debut novel came out last year it earned high praise on every corner. Most book bloggers listed it as one of their favorites from 2014. I missed out on reading it until I won it in a giveaway from my friend's blog over at Pages and Threads, and I was so excited to be able to find out what had everyone else so excited.

"The Butterfly and the Violin" is two stories woven into one. The contemporary story follows New York art gallery owner Sera James as she searches for a painting which has haunted her since she saw it as a child. The painting depicts a beautiful violinist inside the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Sera is still trying to put the pieces of her life back together after being jilted at the altar, and she feels somehow that finding this painting will help her find herself again.

Mixed in with Sera's story is what really happened with the violinist from the painting, Adele Von Bron. Adele was raised in a wealthy Austrian home and from her teenage years played with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. There she meets Vladimir Nicolai, a proficient musician with a humble background. When her father turns away Vladimir as a potential suitor, Vladimir and Adele find ways to see each other secretly and to work together on their dangerous passion: assisting Jewish families hidden in Vienna.

When she gets caught, Adele is sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and becomes a member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. Forced to play while the other prisoners marched either to work or to the gas chambers, Adele and her fellow musicians seek to find a way to keep hope and beauty alive in such a dark place. Desperately hoping God will forgive her for using her gift at the order of the Nazis, Adele wrestles with unimaginable horror and extreme deprivation in some of the worst days of the world's history.

Sera discovers that the original painting of Adele is also being sought by William Hanover, as his grandfather's will has left their entire family business to the unnamed owner of the portrait. William and Sera join forces to locate the painting and find out whether Adele ever made it out of Auschwitz.

I did enjoy this novel very much, and I'm looking forward to reading Cambron's second release in upcoming weeks. I learned a lot about Auschwitz and its orchestra, and my heart broke again for the atrocities of World War II. While I did feel the historical side was better developed than its contemporary counterpart, it seems Sera's story will continue in the next novel in the series, "A Sparrow in Terezin," and I look forward to seeing how that come together. Overall, a very touching WWII novel which readers of the genre should look into.