Night Song: A Story of Sacrifice

Having had the pleasure of reading Tricia Goyer’s first novel, From Dust and Ashes, this reviewer was delighted to be asked to review Night Song. Each story is set in a very difficult time in world history, World War II. Night Song takes readers into the lives of four main characters: Jakub Hanauer, Nick Fletcher, Evie Kreig and Otto Akeman.

On the night Nick had planned to ask Evie to marry him, both of their worlds were turned upside down. Evie’s father interrupted their evening dinner with the news that Evie’s family had to go back to Austria. Her father served as an Austrian diplomat and even though the Kreig’s had been in America for numerous years, the American government still requested they go back to their homeland during the war. It isn’t long after her family’s departure that Nick finds himself drafted as a medic into the army. Nick and Evie both will find themselves caught up in a world neither wants to acknowledge and they must keep faith that one day they will reunite. Can these two characters find each other again in a war torn world where the odds are stacked against them?

Young Jakub watched as the German troops pulled his father along the streets outside of his home, and he sat in a horrified state as he watched those officers crush the hands of his little brother Daniel as he tried to save their father. Like his father, Daniel was a violinist and a prodigy that most in Germany knew about. How could this be happening to his family just because they were Jewish was the question most individuals within the Jewish community were asking themselves. Not long after his father’s abduction, Jakub and his family will be moved to a camp and all his father’s prized and valuable instrument collection, including one authentic Stradivarius violin, confiscated. Ironically it will be this violin that will either be his family’s downfall or Jakub’s saving grace.

Otto Akeman is an SS Sturmmann in Hitler’s elite force. Within the scope of his duties, he discovers the power wielded by the higher officials, and Otto will begin to crave it for his own.. He has never seen anyone with such a powerful aura as he sees in these officers and Hitler. Making it his ultimate goal, he begins a journey into a dark and dangerous world where no one knows who is trustworthy. Will Otto’s passion for this unnatural supremacy be his undoing?

Night Song is by no means a lighthearted romance. It is the ultimate story of sacrifice, prejudice and faith. Tricia Goyer’s words will take readers on a journey into a time in our world history when no one knew what was really happening. She will make you relive this terrifying time through the eyes of these four main characters. By far it is young Jakub’s story that will be the most heartfelt. Each of these characters will be placed in life or death situation and it is how they deal with the situation that will either save them or be the end of them.

This is a book that will grab you from the beginning and keep you till the end. If anyone can read this book and not be pulled in emotionally, then it will be a true miracle in this reviewer’s way of thinking. This author needs to be rewarded for her ability to take a complicated time in history and create a story that will show readers a factual side of what really happened.

Mrs. Goyer also incorporates the faith of Christianity into this story. After all, in a time such as this, it may be their faith in God that will ultimately help some of them live in such a terrifying world. Night Song will not be a book you will soon forget. It will live in your heart and mind long after you read it.

Reviewed by: JoAnn