Dissonance

by Lisa Lenard-Cook

Book Overview

When Anna Kramer, a piano teacher in Los Alamos, New Mexico, inherits the journals and scores of composer Hana Weissova, she is mystified by this bequest from a woman she does not know. As Kramer begins to play Weissova's music, however, some of her forgotten emotions resurface. Upon reading the dead woman's journals, which begin in 1945 after Weissova is released from a concentration camp, decades-old secrets that Kramer and her family have kept...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826330908
• ISBN13: 9780826330901
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Worth the Wait

For the past several years everyone has been telling me I needed to read this book. For some reason or another it kept slipping to the back of my mind and I'd forget to read it. Last week I decided it was time and I'm so glad I finally sat down and opened the cover. This is a beautiful book, elegant and deep. The seamless interweaving of the three distinct story themes (the present, past, and the power of music) is as lovely a melody as I have ever encountered. Unforgettable, haunting, and highly recommended.

A well-deserved award-winner

Once you have read this book, you will want to tell everyone you know. Pass it on! Word of mouth will make this book a bestseller.

A Virtuoso performance

The analogy of music and the piano, as an instrument, to human events and emotions is superb! This alone, makes the book worth reading. However, you won't lay this little gem down until the mystery of the story is resolved.

If you like a well written book, try this one!

I enjoyed the writing (not to mention the story). The author wove several lines in a delightful way...very enjoyable to read. The style was very effective in conveying the harmony/dissonance themes. And the story had enough surprising twists and turns to keep me turning pages. I was especially impressed with the extremely well researched material on music and the Holocaust.

An Unexpected Symphony

"Dissonance" swept me from page to page.Was it the gripping story of one woman, two families, an entire race? The mystery of a bequest from a stranger? The journey from tea and ristras in today's New Mexico to World War II death factories -- a Czech Concentration Camp and our own Los Alamos Labs? The unexpected symphonies in all these places?Or the poetry -- the sound -- that breathes in each paragraph?I don't know. I can only tell you that this book led me to a most wonderful place of the heart.This book sings.