I’m aware it’s nonsense to present in our virtual book club a book that my colleague and co-owner of the club – Grinning Cat 1 - has not read, because she simply cannot read it.
It’s even more absurd that I write my enthusiastic review in English, when the book in question cannot be read by Anglophone readers, since its English translation doesn't exist yet.
Nevertheless I feel so enthusiastic about this little literary jewel, that I cannot help signalling it in our Book Club, inviting all of you to mark somewhere the name of the author and what might be the title in English and to take the opportunity of reading it as soon as it’s available.

The original book is in German and its title is "Herr Mozart wacht auf", which means “ Mr. Mozart wakes up”.

So far I have found only an Italian translation of it, which I have enjoyed enormously, since unluckily my German is too poor to allow me to read it in the original.
It’s the first work of a young German writer, Eva Baronsky, who has the sure talent and the literary skills which many older and more experienced colleagues would have all reasons to envy her.
Baronsky offers us an exquisite mixture of subtle humour, historical references and fancy, which she presents in every line of her book with elegance, style, tenderness and emotion.
***
The first pages of the book take us back to the evening of the 5th of December 1791.
Wolfgang Mozart, surrounded by his wife and his caring relatives is approaching painfully the last moment of his life.

A doctor tries to administer cures to him, but the effect is just to make Mozart slip deeper in his weakness; he loses consciousness and his mind sinks into the peaceful darkness of death.
But then Mozart wakes up in an unknown room, he realizes he’s wearing unusual clothes which don’t belong to him, everything looks strange, bizarre and incomprehensible to him, nevertheless he feels better than he had felt during the last few weeks.
He can breathe freely, he feels strong, he doesn’t feel any pain.

He wonders if that place with unusual pieces of furniture where lights are not originated by candles, music and voices come from small boxes without any human presence, water runs from pipes without any pump is in reality the entrance hall of paradise ( or maybe of hell).

Herr Mozart still doesn’t know it, but soon he realizes with amazement that it’s not 1791 anymore, but 2006, even though he’s always in his town, Vienna, which he cannot recognize by now.

The only motivation he can find to explain all that is to consider that it has been provoked by a supernatural and divine force which has given him a chance to finish his “ Requiem”, left unfinished at the moment of his death.
So Mozart keeps on wandering about modern Vienna, trying hard to manage and hiding his real identity, because he fully realizes that nobody would take him seriously and he would be considered a lunatic if he declared to be Wolfgang Mozart the composer.
But the little man with surprised blue eyes is not a common scared involuntary time traveller, he’s Mozart, he has the music on his side and its eternal language with which he finds a way to communicate with other musicians.
Music is his guiding line which makes him get acquainted with Piotr, a Polish violinist who tries to earn some money in Austria, as street musician.
Piotr becomes a kind of practical and spiritual guide, a modern Virgil, as he leads Wolfgang across the unexpected and puzzling obstacles of this new strange world, whatever it might be.
***
Mozart expresses his genius without any hesitation also when he has to cope with new styles of music.
He discovers jazz in a night club where he plays piano with his Polish friend to earn a living and he absorbs it, dominates it, transforms it to make it his own as well.

Little by little Wolfgang starts finding his place in his new existence which he doesn’t consider so menacing anymore, he feels relaxed and displays, besides his enormous talent, also his joyful and humorous temper, his honest feelings, and his love for life.

He feels inspiration for new musical compositions which raise the enthusiasms of experts, he finds friends and even a romantic love (he justifies himself thinking that his beloved wife Stanzi has been dead for 200 years after all...)

And finally, when Herr Mozart, after all his vicissitudes, finds the time to finish his “ Requiem” one year has passed and another 5th of December is approaching...

What will happen then?
***
This novel is a passionate and accurate hymn to music and a delicate and tender tribute to Mozart as musician and as character.

Readers cannot help becoming fond of Wolfgang and identifying themselves in his misfortunes and joys.

The author has a natural talent for description and she takes us by the hand to make us enter the narration as if we were living inside it too.
***
I recommend reading this book, when it is available in different translations, to all the people who like good literature, music, fancy and even history and think that feelings, curiosity and creativity are more important than a plot full of action and easy effects.
***
Take this book, put on a symphony by Mozart in the background, have a drink (possibly coffee or beer...) by you on a small table and be ready for a few hours of genuine pleasure.


My precious colleague - Grinning Cat 1 - has helped me to translate in English some extracts from this so enjoyable book.
You might read them in her section of the Book Club, clicking on the little librarian black cat .