THE FIRE CONCERTO

 

THE FIRE CONCERTO

By Sarah Landenwich

Union Square & Co.

334 pgs

 

Rare are the stories that take hold of one’s imagination and don’t let go until the final page. This is one of them. The year is 1997 and thirty-year old Clara Bishop is a bartender in Austin, Texas living a quiet, happy life with her small circle of friends. What they don’t know is that ten years earlier she had been a rising star in the music world as a talented concert pianist. All of which came to an end when she was severely burned in a fire at her premier in Warsaw, Poland.

 

Clara blamed her teacher Madame Zofia Mikorska for the tragedy and retired from playing. As the book opens, Clara is made aware that Madame Mikorska has died and left her a unique item, an old world, beautifully crafted metronome; those wind-up devices used to keep a beat. Along with the item is a cryptic note hinting that there is a secret behind the metronome that only Clara can solve. Thus begins a complex and utterly fascinating adventure that leads back to the days of pre-World War II Poland and the death of that country’s greatest composer, Aleksander Starza. 

Sarah Landenwich, herself a musician, weaves a fast-paced puzzle that keeps jumping back and forth between the past and the present as Clara’s investigation begins to unravel the lives of several remarkably gifted women; all somehow connected with the death of Starza. But what are its implications for Clara? The story is addictive in that once begun, these characters draw us into their sad, seemingly lost lives. Their hunt for an ages-old solution somehow offers the possibility of genuine redemption for them all. 

“The Fire Concerto” is hands down one of the best mysteries we’ve read this year. Now someone go make it into a movie. Please.