Hi Mayra,
great idea your violin/literature-blog! Additionally to the violinist.com list here some others mostly from german-speaking literature. Some are translated, some are just published in Germany, starting with two novelettes:
Franz Grillparzer: Der arme Spielmann
engl. translation: http://web.onetel.net.uk/~wstanners/grillpar.htm
original: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=5&xid=960&kapitel=1#gb_found
The translation is quite bad, much is lost in translation, some descriptions are very vivid, e. g. the old man playing self-forgotten in the crowd.
Same applies to:
Joseph von Eichendorff: Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts
engl translation: http://www.fln.vcu.edu//eichendorff/taugenichts1_e_pics.html
original: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=5&xid=532&kapitel=1#gb_found
Quite entertaining books are Paolo Maurensig’s “Canone inverso” (http://www.amazon.com/Canone-Inverso-Paolo-Maurensig/dp/0753809494/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195203069&sr=8-2) and “The Black Violin” (http://www.amazon.com/Black-Violin-Novel-Maxence-Fermine/dp/0743456858/ref=pd_sim_b) of Maxence Fermine. Good for plane trips and shorter strikes.
Then two novels, both are (in my opinion) incredibly bad written.
First Pascal Mercier’s “Lea” (http://specials.hanser.de/mercier/index.asp), published this year. He wrote “Night Train to Lisbon”, which was quite a success, unfortunately Lea is pure, undiluted sob-stuff, but since you asked for violin related books…
Finally Dieter Kühn’s “Beethoven und der schwarze Geiger”, covering a fictional journey Beethoven’s to Africa with his mate George Bridgetower, a famous black violinist in his time (Beethoven dedicated his Kreutzer-sonata to Bridgetower at the first). It’s a fairly witty portrait of both, puzzled together from anecdotes (http://www.amazon.de/Beethoven-schwarze-Geiger-Dieter-K%C3%BChn/dp/3596131707).
Now after such lousy books like the last two, a good movie: ever heard of El Violín (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l23wYKg7wjY)? Mexican movie from 2005, since your Spanish is perfect you’ll love it…!
Have a great weekend,
Mischa
