The Rosendorf Quartet

Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: Displaced Jewish musicians from Germany, not suspeced of Zionism, find themselves in the ideologically zealous Palestine of 1937.
With the prospects of going back to Germany becoming slimmer, and the future of Jews in Palestine being shaky, they try to find condolence in music.
The personal differences between the four quartet members are intensified by the division of the novel into different parts, each one the diary of a different quartet member.
While the music making and the social surroundings are always present, the book's main merit is in presenting the personal turmoil that people undergo when uprooted from their homeland, especially one that has betrayed them.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Novel
Review: I thought this was an intelligent and beautifully written book. No fireworks, car chases, television drama. Instead, we get intriguing characters and complex relationships. A brilliant look at Israeli society and four people trying to make music together.

Rating:
Summary: the rosendorf quartet
Review: This is a superbly well-written book, beautifully translated into English from the original Hebrew. It operates on many levels: nominally, it is about four displaced German-Jewish musicians, refugees from Hitler's Germany who find themselves in Palestine in 1937. Metaphorically it can be read as the power of chamber music as a common denominator among disparate personalities and fractured lives. It also offers insights into traditional European culture in the context of a pioneering social experiment in the Middle East. A riveting read. A civilising experience.