Home - Shelley Davidow

Coming 3 July 24

the girl with the violin - shelly davidow

A powerful love story, set against the fall of the Berlin Wall, in which one woman’s quest for identity and healing also becomes the single way she can honour her grandparents, whose lives were irreversibly shattered by the Holocaust.

For, Susanna, a young Jewish-Australian violinist, a scholarship to Berlin is the chance of a lifetime. Germany is on the verge of change as the wall is torn down, and Susanna is swept along by the tumultuous event. Under the careful guidance of Stefan Heinemeyer, her renowned violin teacher and the grandson of a Nazi, she begins a composition in memory of her grandmother, Mirla, who died in the Buchenwald concentration camp during the Second World War.

Just as her musical career is about to go stratospheric, a forbidden yearning for Stefan begins to unfurl. This changes Susanna’s life forever, and the repercussions echo through decades and across continents.

Background to The Girl With The Violin

Shelley Davidow is originally from South Africa but has spent two decades living and working all over the world. She is now based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in Australia. Although she never aspired to be a globe-trotter and in fact, coveted stability, living in diverse places has given her a far-ranging experience of humanity which, she believes, is never a bad thing for a write.