The book begins with Gustav as a child. His father has died mysteriously and Gustav lives with his mother who lacks affection for her son. Gustav learns to keep things in. He meets Anton at Kindergarten. Anton and his family are Jews and live a better lifestyle than Gustav, whose mother strives to keep them going on the little she earns at the Cheese Factory. The boys lives intertwine over the years as Anton (who is a talented piano player) tries to overcome his fears of performing on stage to win competitions.
The second part of the book deals with the romance and marriage of Gustav's father and mother. His mother sets out to get her handsome man, but soon the marriage falls on stony ground when her apparent innocence of what is going on in the world causes argument. I don't want to give away spoilers, so I will say no more.
In the third part the two boys are now middle aged, Gustav runs a hotel and Anton is a music teacher. When Anton receives exciting news he seizes it and moves to Geneva to pursue his dream - his second chance of finding success. Gustav is devastated. Meanwhile Gustav tries to find about what happened to his father and meets the wife of his father's former boss and secrets are revealed. Gustav is also the one who visits Anton's parents regularly. When things go wrong for Anton it is Gustav who is there to pick up the pieces.
This is a book about friendship and love that endures. It is sad, thoughtful, heartbreaking, beautiful and ultimately unputdownable. Brilliant.
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Finally, a look on the website Visual Verse I found they had published a piece of flash fiction of mine called Quiz. It's down on page 62 (a long scroll!)That was a lovely surprise.
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