"Vinnie wanted what was possible in a reasonable world: family, music, love. I wanted those things, too, and for a brief moment had had them. He hadn't yet looked into the face of evil or felt the rancid breath of humiliation on his neck. He hadn't seen things that made people pray for death. But I had, and I would extract as much vengeance as I could before death overtook me."

Mia Levy comes from a middle-class Jewish family in Lodz, Poland. She is beautiful and privileged, cultured and fluent in several languages. Her family indulges her passion for music by letting her study in Paris. Only Mia is able to escape when her family is betrayed and she eventually makes her way to America. She discovers jazz and the wonders of New York City and love. But her family's deaths weigh heavy on Mia, so she leaves all of that behind and embarks on a new trade - spycraft. Sent back to her beloved Paris, Mia's posting is a bit of a shock, but she finds it affords her the perfect opportunities to strike at the Nazis when they least expect it.

If you've been following my reading then you know this was a no-brainer for me. Paris. Nazis. Music.
I did read it all in one evening. I tried to go to bed but I just had to know what happened so I got back up and finished it. I loved the style of the writing, so fluid. It's hard to believe this is a first novel. I was a little surprised at how dark it went, and also quite sexual. I'm fine with those when they service the story - I just didn't expect them from the blurbs I had read. I loved the journey this book took me on and I wish there were more novels to read from Zacharius. ( )

This is a great story based on the author's own experiences in the war. I liked the different approach to the story, told through the voice of Mia, a Jewish teenager. Her family is killed in the concentration camps, she survives and goes on to work with the resistance. She lives through the ghetto in a war-ridden Poland, she escapes this to go to America where she finds love, and she heads back to Paris to save her people from the Nazis. A lot of good historical details in this book along with suspense, intrigue and horrors bring the story of Mia to life. ( )

Al estallar la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el universo de la joven judía Mia, como el de tantas otras personas, se derrumba. Procedente de una acomodada familia polaca, excepcional pianista y amante de la música clásica, lo pierde todo con la entrada de los nazis en su país. La familia entera es expulsada de su casa y metida en un tren rumbo a un campo de concentración. Milagrosamente, el padre de Mia consigue salvar a su hija, empujándola fuera del tren, y la joven consigue huir a Estados Unidos y empezar una vida nueva.

Although this book is fictional, I have read enough Holocaust narratives to believe in the integrity of the story. Having been present at the liberation of Paris, Zacharius surely witnessed the confusion and despair faced by the many displaced and impossibly shattered people. I found the significance of music as the backdrop for much of the story wonderful, as music evokes such strong emotions. To pair the music with such intense experiences during the war, both good and bad, was no less than phenomenal. ( )