This story is centered around a violin and the families that owned it. I enjoyed learning details of classical music, competitions, and how violins are made. The author seemed adept at getting into the mindset of a 14 year old boy's love of music and baseball. The middle chapters about the Jewish family during WWII are told in a compelling manner.

The timeline jumped around quite a bit, which I thought made the story more disjointed than necessary. The beginning chapters were not particularly engaging and could have been significantly edited. Some of the characters seemed to be introduced solely as a plot device and were not organic to the story. There were too many "coincidences" and some key events not very believable. Be prepared for a few scenes of graphic violence. ( )

For me, "The Keeper of Secrets" had many ups and downs. I loved the story of the priceless Guarneri violin, the history of violin making and all the musical references. The author did a good job weaving the violin through the stories of fourteen-year-old Danimal Horowitz, his grandfather, Simon, and Russian-born, Sergei Valentino. I especially enjoyed Simon's tale. He lost his beloved violin during the Holocaust and the horrors he had to endure at the Dachau concentration camp were gut-wrenching,

However, there were many times when I found the plot incredibly slow, and I had to force myself to keep reading. There was just too much detail which interrupted the flow of the story and bogged the book down, almost to a grinding halt. Also, there was little character development and Sergei's story was just not interesting. As for the ending, although sweet, it finished too conveniently for my liking. "The Keeper of Secrets" was a good read, but not a great one. ( )

Historic - definitely. Fiction - maybe not so much. I was hooked from the first paragraph. ( )

I think the best summary of this book is the last paragraph of the book. Daniel Horowitz, one of the characters, is being interviewed about his life as a violin virtuoso, says to his interviewer,

"The opening sentence should be, 'this is not so much my story as the story of a German Jew, a Spanish Catholic, a Russian agnostic, and a rather special violin called Yulena.'

The violin, rare and extremely valuable, is confiscated by the Nazis from a wealthy, musical Jewish family. The events from the sixty years between the confiscation and the recovery of the violin is the focus of the story.

Well-written. But one chapter stands out as an especially haunting description of the liberation of Dachau.

This book is a must read for classical music lovers. ( )

I thought this would be a book clubby sort of thing - and I guess it was - but I very much enjoyed it. There were a couple of things that were noticeable - the focus of the first part seemed as though it was to be on the boy, but it really focused more on the conductor. This wasn't a bad thing, but I had the impression that the boy was to be the focus...so the feel I got was that that section was UNfocused. The gypsy girl character seemed forced in; maybe there had been more about her that was cut? And the resolution seemed a little pat. But it very much held my interest and I'd recommend it. ( )