The Butterfly and the Violin

In Vienna in 1940, Adele von Bron is a gifted young violinist, coddled by her Viennese parents, as the Third Reich exerts its power over Austria shortly after the Anschluss. They disapprove of the young musician who calls her “Butterfly” because he is of the merchant class and—worse—sympathizes with Jews. By 1943, both young people are conscripts at Auschwitz-Birkenau, forced to play in camp orchestras for the daily death march. Seventy years later, New York gallery owner Sera James buries herself in work to avoid the memory of her wedding-day betrayal. She is obsessed with finding a painting that she saw as a child of a beautiful Auschwitz prisoner holding a violin. Learning that a copy of the artwork hangs in a California business magnate’s home, Sera is unwillingly drawn out of her reserve by William Hanover. Prickly at first for his own reasons, Hanover hires Sera to find the painting. They combine forces to discover their respective connections to the haunting image. In chapters alternating between past and present, debut novelist Cambron vividly recounts interwoven sagas of heartache and recovery through courage, love, art, and faith. Agent: Joyce Hart, Hartline Literary Agency. (July)