The Wind’s Song

The Wind’s Song looks at the hidden spaces between who we are, and who we think we are, what we believe and what we know.

When twenty-five-year-old architect Josef’s beloved grandfather dies and his girlfriend threatens to leave him, he becomes depressed and reluctantly agrees to visit psychologist, Clara. This is the start of a relationship that will change both therapist and client.  

As Josef struggles to recover from depression, his view of his family’s origins is given a jolt when he discovers that his beloved grandfather lied to him.  Josef’s family was not Danish as he believed, but originally from the forests of Bavaria. Neither as he maintained, was his grandfather a member of the Danish Resistance, who saved the majority of their Jewish population during World War Two by ferrying them across the straights to neutral Sweden. After much research, he is horrified to discover that his grandfather was a Nazi, who secretly volunteered to join Hitler’s SS Waffen.

Carla is a caring therapist in a state of flux, coasting in a burnt-out marriage and tired from years of counselling, yet her Jewish beliefs, rituals and memories sustain her. Her sessions with Josef initiate thoughts of her past - her father and his family who once lived in Bavaria, only a short distance from Josef’s, in the medieval city of Regensburg. 

Due to work pressure, she sees little of her children and grandchildren. To revive their empty marriage, her husband, Steve, suggests a trip to Europe. After a brief stay in Paris, Munich and a harrowing visit to the concentration camp at Dachau, they visit Regensburg where with the help of a genealogist, she fills in many gaps about her family history. When they move on to holiday in Crete, the passion of earlier years returns. 

Discoveries about her roots have made her feel more complete. She makes the important changes of working fewer hours and spends more time with her grandchildren.

Though Josef is repulsed by details of his grandfather’s unsavoury wartime activities, with Carla’s support he faces the truth and moves on.



About the Author: 



Joan Zawatzky has spent her working life as a counselling psychologist and now devotes her time to writing and painting.  She writes non-fiction, self-improvement books as well as novels. “The Wind’s Song,” a novel, focusses on World War Two and the descendants of the Holocaust and their families.