What the Night Sings

Starred review from November 20, 2017
Stamper’s exceptionally moving debut goes beyond recounting the suffering inflicted on Jews during the Holocaust to explore a young woman’s conflict between love and artistic ambition. Fourteen-year-old Gerta Richter, a talented singer and daughter of a violist in the Würzburg Orchestra, learned that she is actually Gerta Rausch, a Jew, when she and her father were forcibly removed from Würzburg by the Nazis one night in June 1944. The novel opens with the British liberation of German concentration camps in 1945 and moves smoothly among Gerta’s prewar life, her stay in concentration camps and the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp, and her postwar flight to Palestine. Focusing on Gerta’s transitional time as a displaced person, Stamper delves into her fight to regain her musical gift, her deepening relationship with a fellow survivor, her growing identity as a Jew, and her struggle to make decisions about her future. Generously illustrated with Stamper’s haunting spot images and larger scenes, all in deep brown hues that evoke profound emotion, the book is a strong addition to the bookshelf of Holocaust fiction. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lori Kilkelly, Rodeen Literary Management.

Narrator Deborah Grausman's youthful voice makes the story of 14-year-old Gerta Rausch all the more horrifying. Sheltered Gerta learns of her Jewish identity when Nazis capture her and her father in 1944. Grausman's emotional reading expresses Gerta's initial confusion, her tender feelings for her papa, and the comfort that music brings her. Musical interludes and Grausman's periodic bursts into song emphasize Gerta's passion for music and her sorrow over losing her singing voice. Gerta's resilience is layered with resentment, grief, and a self-protectiveness that helps her survive three concentration camps but also discourages a loving relationship. The author's depiction of the displaced-persons' camp will be almost as difficult for listeners as hearing what Gerta faces in the concentration camps. S.W. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine