The Silver Music Box

The Silver Music Box, Book 1

By: Mina Baites, Alison Layland - translator

Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

A captivating cross-generational novel from German author Mina Baites about a Jewish family divided by World War II and an inheritance with the power to bring them back together.

1914. For Paul, with love. Jewish silversmith Johann Blumenthal engraved those words on his most exquisite creation, a singing filigree bird inside a tiny ornamented box. He crafted this treasure for his young son before leaving to fight in a terrible war to honor his beloved country - a country that would soon turn against his own family.

A half century later, Londoner Lilian Morrison inherits the box after the death of her parents. Though the silver is tarnished and dented, this much-loved treasure is also a link to an astonishing past. With the keepsake is a letter from Lilian's mother, telling her daughter for the first time that she was adopted. Too young to remember, Lilian was rescued from a Germany in the grips of the Holocaust. Now only she can trace what happened to a family who scattered to the reaches of the world, a family forced to choose between their heritage and their dreams for the future.

©2017 Mina Baites (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2017 by Alison Layland.

Music box

This is one of the best books I have ever written. I would highly recommend it.

Solid 4 on this book!

This book came at the persecution of Jews
from a different perspective than other books I've read the holocaust. it was interesting and I would recommend it

The silver music box

A incredible good story about the war with Germany. How callus they were and mean. A love story about a jewish couple living in Notsi Germany I will definitely read or listen to another book from this author

wonderful!!!

one of the best books i have listened to yet. the narration was great! the story was superbly told couldnt stop listening. highly recommend it.

Intriguing plot

Excellent beginning and story started out to be a good read. Could have been a very good tale of an unusual family heirloom passed down from WWI era to the 1960s. Of course, the reader can guess what has happened to principle characters. But about two thirds into the book, the reader is abruptly fast forwarded from 1939 to1963 where the heirloom turns up in London . This reader felt there were too many dangling plot ends that could have easily been resolved,even if it was tragic. It was as if the author was tired of writing and just wanted to finish. Yes, it would have been sad to know how we got to the kinder train, but a more satisfying ending would have the 1963 character digging into the past and the reader would have had a more satisfying ending.

I really enjoyed this book!

The narration was excellent and the story line captivating. Extremely sad about a fictional Jewish family's struggle to survive Hitler's regime. I listened on Audible and found it a really good book.

Yet another postwar struggle of families trying to reunite.

Nothing about this story was noteworthy, save for the more than adequate narrator, who was outstanding. No one facet of the story stood out against the backdrop of a multitude of possible story lines: initial shock about the horrors and realities of war, being in actual combat and all that entails, and the postwar struggle to find lost loved ones and rehoming to the extent that is even possible. Still in all, it was a pleasant book, I completed it, and will now look forward to another good story.

Wonderful book

I loved this book! I couldn’t put it down. I think it would make a great movie.

A happy ending but bittersweet and with tears

I loved this peek inside Germany from the perspective of a Jewish family as Hitler rose to power. The narrator had some problems with pronunciation at times and the translator may have also had some issues because several times the wrong words were used in common English idioms.

haunting

Twists of plot, happy and sad times to the very end. Captivating, haunting historical fiction.