Fractured Soul

Author: Akira Mizubayashi
Publisher: Harper Collins 2023

One evening in November 1938 somewhere in Tokyo, eleven year old Rei was reading “How Do You Live?” by Genzaburo Yoshino, while his father and his young Chinese associates were rehearsing Schubert’s “Rosamunde”.  A group of Japanese soldiers forcibly enters the building and Rei’s father hid him in a closet just before they enter the room.  One soldier assaults Rei’s father and destroys his violin by stamping on it.  Their superior officer, Lieutenant Kurokami, enters the room intervenes, putting a stop to further violence.  The meaning of the Japanese word Kurokami is “Black God”.

Lt. Kurokami asks Rei’s father what they were practicing.  

Rei’s father: “Schubert’s String Quartet in A Minor, opus 29, D. 804, sir.”

Lt. Kurokami: “Rosamunde”

Rei’s father: “Yes, that’s it.  Do you know it?”

Lt. Kurokami: Yes, a little.  It’s a magnificent piece.”

“So this is your violin?” Kurokami asked, looking at the smashed violin, both troubled and embarrassed.

“It is not a Stradivarius, of course,” Rei’s father replied.  “But it is an old instrument, made by a French luthier whose name was Nicolas François Vuillaume.  It dates from 1857.”

“And you play first violin, mister …?”

“My name is Mizusawa.  Yes, I’m the first violin”.

Lieutenant asks Mr. Mizusawa to play something for them using one of his Chinese associate’s violin.   Mr. Mizusawa plays a piece by Bach for the young Lieutenant.

“Partia no. 3 in E Major by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Gavotte en rondeau”, said the lieutenant, his voice trembling, when Mr. Mizusawa finished the piece.

It was then, that a soldier rushed into the room and addressed the lieutenant.

“I am here to inform you of an order from the headquarters, sir.”

“Yes, and what is it?”

“All interrogated suspects must be taken to headquarters without exception, sir.”

“All, interrogated persons?”

“Yes, sir.”

That was the last time Rei saw his father.  His mother died when he was three and at the age of eleven, he lost his father and became an orphan.

It is the story of the life of Rei.  He was left with his father’s broken violin and his book “How Do You Live?” to begin the rest of his life.

This book is translated from French to English by Alison Anderson.  The author is a French teacher at a Japanese University.

I would not rate him as high as Haruki Murakami, but there are some parallels between the two authors since they both are music lovers.  It is not a bad book.