My Rating: 4 stars
Back in 2017, I had read Jillian Cantor’s The
Lost Letter and it quickly became one of my favorite reads that year --
one of the few books that I had actually rated 5 stars due to how much the
story had moved me emotionally (plus the book was truly well-written of
course). Given how much I liked Cantor’s previous
novel, when I heard that she would have a new book coming out this month –
another work of historical fiction entitled In Another Time which,
similar to her previous novel, is also set during World War II and, from the
summary, sounded like it would be in a similar vein as The Lost Letter -- I quickly secured an advance copy to
read. While there are certain aspects of
Cantor’s newest work that parallel her previous one – dual timelines, backdrop
of World War II and the persecution of Jews during Hitler’s reign, setting in
multiple countries in Europe and also in the United States, the discovery of a
hidden family secret, a Jewish woman with a strong, feisty personality falling
in love with a non-Jewish man who is willing to risk his life to save the woman
he loves at all costs, etc. – the story itself is actually quite
different. This time around, music plays
an integral role in the story, specifically the music from a violin, to the
point that I felt the violin itself became a central character of the same
level of importance as the main characters Hanna and Max.
I don’t want to give away too much of the plot so I won’t
go into much detail here other than to say that Hanna and Max share a love relationship
that truly transcends time – one that is enduring and passionate yet at the
same time heartbreaking and tragic.
Their story is also one of survival and resilience amidst the horrors of
a devastating war, with the characters striving to rise above the circumstances
while fighting against the bonds of fate and destiny. Format-wise, the narrative alternated between
both Hanna and Max’s perspectives, though from a character development
standpoint, it was in reality much more Hanna’s story than Max’s. Perhaps this was one reason why this story
and its characters didn’t resonate with me as much as the ones in Cantor’s
previous novel did. To be honest, I
actually found Hanna to be a bit annoying, with her actions frustrating me more
times than I really cared for. To me,
Hanna wasn’t an easy character to root for -- on the one hand, her tenacity and
steadfastness in holding firm to what she believed in were admirable, but I
felt that she oftentimes went overboard in her steadfastness, to the point that
it defied all logic and reason. I had no
problems with the way she immersed herself so completely into playing the
violin, as most consummate musicians have a level of dedication to their craft
that many non-artists probably won’t understand. Rather, the part that actually frustrated me
about Hanna was how little sense of self-preservation she had – when everyone around
her kept telling her how bad things were getting in Germany after Hitler rose
to power and “the proof” was practically staring her in the face almost daily
with Jews getting arrested or “disappearing” left and right, yet she would
always purposely ignore the danger signs and repeatedly took a “as long as I
have my violin everything will be ok” attitude.
I hate to say it, but the way Hanna’s character was written, there were points
in the story where I actually felt sorry for Max and couldn’t help wondering
whether the risk was truly worth taking (I’m being deliberately vague here so
as not to spoil the story for those who haven’t read the book).
Despite the fact that I wasn’t able to connect on an
emotional level with the characters, and in all honesty, didn’t find Hanna and
Max’s relationship “moving” like most other readers did (probably due to my
frustrations with the way some of the characters were developed as mentioned
above), I did find this to be a well-crafted story, one that is well-researched,
well-written, and definitely worth reading.
With that said, I did feel at times that there should’ve been a better
balance between the various elements of the story, such as the historical
aspects versus the romance / love story portion – this one leaned a little more
toward the latter than I would have preferred at some parts, but luckily it
didn’t overpower the story completely.
Overall, this was a good read and one that I would
definitely recommend. Though I personally
liked the story in The Lost Letter more than this one, I still feel that Cantor
did a fine job with this book and I look forward to what she will come out with
next!
Received ARC from Harper
Perennial via Edelweiss.
