The Singing Tree

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Kristian Hardy, an old man closing out his days in the jungle,was once Kurt Hellmann, the youngest railway stationmaster inGermany. One day as he was serving in that capacity, a phone callcaused him to panic and precipitate the deaths of 123 Jews en routeto the concentration camps. Josef Mengele's remains having beenidentified, Hardy now regards himself as "the last Nazi massmurderer." He teeters just this side of despair, thanks to his lovefor Eduardo, his housekeeper's small son, and to his losing battleto maintain in good repair the Bechstein grand piano left behind bythe plantation's previous owner. Unexpectedly, Hardy finds himselfin love--with a young Jewish woman from New York, come to Brazil insearch of butterflies, whom Hardy takes for his nemesis, the Nazihunter of his recurring dreams. Hardy's youthful moment of panichad revealed to him the void at the center of what he had taken tobe his values. He longs for punishment but has evaded it until now,when he openly courts an expiatory act. "In his first novel, PeterMoss has Hardy tell his tale with economy and precision, leading usthrough a moral landscape as tangled as the wilderness. Even thetouch of sentimentality toward the end tells us much about Hardy,and the unobtrusive ambiguity at the close provides just the righttouch of muted dissonance. "The Singing Tree" is a littlegem."--Frank Wilson, "New York Times"

The Singing Tree

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