Barbara Lloyd McMichael

“The Woman Who Heard Color” — Kelly Jones
Berkley — 400 pages — $15

Because synesthesia runs in our family, I was immediately attracted to the new book titled “The Woman Who Heard Color.” Synesthesia might be described as the preternaturally close association of one sense or form with another — perceiving numbers in a precise spatial set-up, for example, or linking certain aural tones with precise visual hues.

 

Boise author Kelly Jones taps into that fascinating condition of mixed sensations to great effect with this new novel set in the art world of Germany in the tumultuous first half of the 20th century.

 

Jones has written other novels based on art history — “The Seventh Unicorn” revolved around medieval tapestries and “The Lost Madonna” trafficked in Renaissance art. But this story has the bite and urgency of a tale still unfolding — even today, works that were looted by the Nazis during World War II are being tracked down and restored to their original owners — or to their descendants.

 

And that’s how this novel begins. Lauren O’Farrell is a young art detective based in New York City. She has built her profession around identifying, locating and retrieving works that had been purloined under Third Reich directives. Her passion for her work stems from her roots. Although Lauren has taken her husband’s Irish surname, both of her parents are Jewish and World War II rendered her father an orphan.

 

Lauren’s latest quest is to learn more about a wealthy Munich art dealer who specialized in the works of Kandinsky and others, and who probably had been a Nazi collaborator. Although the woman, Hanna Schmid, has long since died, her daughter is still alive and Lauren believes that she may, perhaps unwittingly, possess pilfered works.

 

Lauren uses false pretenses to arrange a meeting with Isabella Fletcher, now 82 years of age. But the old lady is no pushover. When Lauren arrives for the meeting, Isabella quickly exposes her ruse. However, she indicates that she is willing on her own terms to meet with Lauren because she needs some professional advice.

 

Jones entwines three perspectives, two continents and two different time frames in this book. She tells the 20th-century story of Hanna as she grows into womanhood, marries, develops a career and begins to raise a family while Germany moves toward its darkest days. And she also writes the 21st-century story of how Isabella relates what she knows of her mother’s activities to Lauren and of how Lauren fits that into her changing understanding of the circumstances and consequences of Hanna’s activities during World War II.

 

The first third of the book has issues with pacing, but the novel soon hits its stride, recombining characters, circumstances and events in a sequence of vibrant vignettes. Readers will become deeply engaged in the task of piecing together Hanna’s experiences with Isabella’s recollections.

 

“The Woman Who Heard Color” is at once heartbreaking and uplifting. It does indeed sing — of love, creativity, sacrifice, courage. And of happy endings — in a minor key.

 

The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMichael, who writes this weekly column focusing on the books, authors and publishers of the Pacific Northwest. Contact her at bkmonger@nwlink.com.