The Melody of Secrets

Readers who find suspending disbelief an uphill slog will be more than challenged by this melodramatic story from Stepakoff (The Orchard) about Maria, a German woman building a new life after WWII. In March 1945, Maria, then a teenager who is working as a music teacher, has a brief but meaningful encounter with an American soldier, James Cooper, whose parachute lands close to her cottage, near the town of Nordhausen. But they don’t see each other again until 1957. Maria is now living in Huntsville, Ala., married to “solid... dependable” Hans Reinhardt, a German scientist aiding the U.S. in its arms race against the Soviets. Maria’s violin performances for the local musical society have made her a local celebrity. Cooper, now a test pilot for the Air Force, ends up being stationed in Huntsville as well, and the pair considers picking up where they left off. Maria’s music attracts the attention of someone even more gifted on the instrument—a precocious young African-American girl—leading to a manipulative subplot. The leaden prose does nothing to help this novel reach the pathos for which it aims. Agent: Dan Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Agency. (Nov.)