Keller is a violinist unable to fight fo his country because of a weak heart. He is performing for soldiers who are convalescing in hospitals. But one day he is picked up by the SS and delivered to a concentration camp and asked to be part of an experiment. Can classical music revive the spirits of a select group of concentration camp victims? Keller agrees to this plan aware that he really has no choice. This story is combined with interludes from Keller's past - his growing closeness and developing romantic interest in Marietta a fellow musician and a Jew. Keller plays his music to the prisoners hoping he can save them but not all of them want to be saved. There is also the character of Rudi a guard who loves classical music, and has very mixed feelings about the Jew and what he is doing there. Keller sooon discovers what is happening at the camp but has no choice but to keep playing and what happens at the end of the concert has devastating consequences for both him and his audience. ( )

Holocaust literature is meant to make us feel uncomfortable; "The Savior" does that. What makes this more interesting than most is how Drucker (member of the Emerson Quartet) describes the music performed by the main character. In some ways, it is unfortunate the book is not bundled with audio files of the violin sonatas described. ( )

The author of this one is impressive. He's a violinist who has won eight Grammys, and he's the son of an award-winning violinist who fled Germany before the Holocaust.

This adult novel is the story of Gottfried Keller, a German violinist who isn't in the army because of a weak heart. Instead, he performs solos at soldier hospitals because he is told to. He constantly thinks about his former girlfriend who ran away to Palestine when Germany was becoming uncomfortable for Jewish musicians. In fact, Keller almost became a Jew by forging papers so that he could become a member of a prestigious Jewish orchestra. But he didn't. Another example of his weak heart. Instead he is spirited away to perform at a death for four days. He lives at the camp, breathes the soot in the air of dead Jews and Gypsies, and tries to perform well for the thirty prisoners in the experiment.

The novel read quickly. But it isn't heart-warming or inspiring. Typical Holocaust historical fiction. Horrible. Embarrassing. Makes you think. Sad. ( )