The Singing Tree - Hardcover

Moss, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747507104 ISBN 13: 9780747507109

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 1992

Synopsis

Kristian Hardy, an aging planter in Brazil, is troubled by the guilt he feels over his part in the murder of Jews during World War II

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Reviews

Set in Brazil's Amazon basin, this short, powerful first novel takes the form of a journal kept by aged rubber planter Kurt Hellmann, aka Kristian Hardy, who conceals his sordid past in Nazi Germany. As a young Bavarian railway stationmaster, Hellmann dutifully helped transport thousands of Jews to the gas chambers. Repentant, guilt-ridden, his secret continually gnawing at him, he seeks redemption through his devotion to Eduardo, his housekeeper's Indian son. When the body of a kidnapped Indian girl is found on Hellmann's property, the self-castigating emigre makes a ritual pact with the Indians, offering his own life if he fails to find her murderer. Enter Ruth Golding, a vibrant Jewish naturalist from New York. Is she on a butterfly-collecting mission in the ecologically threatened jungle? Or is she a Nazi-hunter after human prey? Suffice to say that their charged encounter blasts Hellmann out of his fatalism. Moss, a Hong Kong-based journalist of Anglo-Indian origins, crafts a mesmerizing story that points an accusatory finger at each of us, asking who we would have been in Nazi Germany, and what parts we play now as evil continues to stalk the world.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the wilds of Brazil, ex-Nazi Kristian Hardy works his small, appropriated rubber plantation and lives with his guilt. He begins a journal and mingles past with present, summoning up memories of being a stationmaster in Germany, watching trains carrying victims to the camps, inciting an incident that kills scores, and so on. Into his present world comes Ruth, a naturalist, but in Kristian's mind she is his nemesis--someone who will expose and punish him. The two explore the wonders of the forest with a small Indian boy, finding almost mystical experiences. Kristian learns that Ruth did not come seeking a Nazi; instead, she finds a lover, a man whose guilt she cannot alleviate. The author's graceful prose succeeds in creating a powerful study of pain, failure, guilt, and the realization that the future may or may not be better. Mood and background are beautifully sustained in this first novel. Highly recommended.
- Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown & Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747507104
• ISBN 13: 9780747507109
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1