Hersey wrote this novel before the movie "The Red Violin" was made, and the book would seem to be the germ of the movie, although the movie adds a mystical character to the violin. Hersey is an excellent writer, in many fields, and is best known for his reportage ("Hiroshima") and heavy novels ("The War Lover" and "The Child Buyer"). This one seems to have been written in a better humor, although in the end, you may not much care for the guy who ends up with the violin. The PBS blurb is incorrect: the novel is 308 pages, not 3 pages.
