Book 1 of The Gift
Historical Fiction
Date to be Published: November 5, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
But the violin Marthe’s father left her is a constant reminder of the profound bond between them, and it gives her the strength to begin healing. When the Köln Conservatory offers her an unexpected scholarship, she seizes her chance to reach for excellence.
Under the rigorous tutelage of Professorin Wolff, and subjected to predatory harassment by a fellow student determined to destroy both her self-worth and her chances of success, Marthe quickly learns she will need more than motivation and talent to rise to the top.
Filled with heart, wit, and music, The Well-Tempered Violinist is an enduring coming-of-age tale about an artist striving for greatness against enormous odds.
Interview with Barbara T. Carlton
What is your favorite part of the book?
I really wanted to try to give my protagonist, the young violinist Marthe Adler, a musical education that would demonstrate to readers just how hard musicians work to create the music they play for us. No matter how gifted you are, there is hard work and repetition, frustration and fatigue as well as the transcendent joy of making music. But I didn’t want to drown readers in minutiae—this is not a technical manual; it’s a story of determination, perseverance, and resilience. I think I threaded that needle to create a believable world and a multi-layered story that does justice to her, to her times, and to her passion for music.
Does your book have a lesson? Moral?
The best answer I can think of comes from Oma Judith, the grandmother of two of Marthe’s classmates. Oma Judith is a true Bohemian. She is a poet whose poetry tells the truth of a woman’s life (an unknown subject in the 19th century when she wrote it). In her youth around 1870, she lived in an artists’ commune (“…there was a fair amount of sex…”) and later raised her daughter as a single mother. Oma Judith encourages Marthe to go after what she needs despite the rigid conventions and prejudices she encounters. One of her greatest pieces of wisdom is: “Never be afraid to kick a stupid rule in the teeth.”*
*(Later, she adds, “Just don’t be surprised if it kicks back.”)
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
Every character is a synthesis of aspects of real people and the author’s imagination. Marthe and I have some qualities in common, manifestly NOT including the ability to play the violin. (Marthe: gifted and passionate violinist. Me: Suzuki method dropout, 1964.) I studied piano for fourteen years, however, and loved it. Several characters contain bits and pieces of my children, other family members, people I’ve known. Some are people I would really LOVE to know! Some characters’ names (not all, by any means) derive from the names of people who inspired them. One is deliberately ironic—not saying whose. That will become more apparent in later books. But no reader is in danger of encountering a character and saying, “Hey, that’s me!”
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?
Although I’m very fond of Marthe, I’m constantly intrigued by Anni. She is in every way her own person: a firebrand, outspoken, brave, and often a bit of a steamroller. She refuses to let the prejudices of her world define her. The minute her school opens its fencing club to girls, she joins and begins her lifelong passion for fencing. Anni is most alive in the world of foils, helmets, quilted armor, and sweat. Marthe muses that Anni would have made a magnificent warrior princess, if only we had need of one in our humdrum modern age.
What character in your book are you least likely to get along with?
I made Reinhold von Marburg rather dislikeable, and I wouldn’t want to be stuck on a desert island with him. But I also tried to give some clues as to why he is the way he is. He embodies a class rigidity and misogyny that was sufficiently common, even in the early 20th century, that it wasn’t even conscious. Sadly, his type still walks among us today, making trouble at every step.
What would the “Stroller kids” in your book have to say about you?
I might remind her of Frau Apfelbaum, Oma Judith’s daughter and the mother of two of Marthe’s classmates: an artist who has temporarily set her art aside to raise a family. Marthe takes that choice for granted until—oops, never mind. That’s Book II! 🤫
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
The Gift is a quadrilogy, a story that takes four books to tell: Marthe Adler’s life, the history she makes as a pioneering woman in the rigid and prejudiced world of classical music, the history she survives as the modern world emerges from the ashes of the old, the barriers she breaks down, and the profound consequences of her life for her daughter and granddaughter as the 20th century unfolds. Each book will make more sense if you’ve read the previous ones first. So, I hope readers will do that.
The Well-Tempered Violinist, Book 1 of The Gift series, is her first novel.
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Facebook: Barbara Thornburgh Carlton, Writer
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