Itâs 1968. The world is in turmoil. So is twenty-thee-year-old Anna Rossi, who questions everything about her life, from her mostly Jewish heritage to her fear of intimacy. Summer in Europe with a childhood friend offers a perfect way to escape her demons. When her friend abandons her in Italy, Anna makes the rash decision to travel on with strangers. Her journey takes a perilous turn, leading her into conflict in Eastern Europe and into the heart of the Balkans.
Love, Intrigue, BetrayalâAnna must find the strength to survive.
Itâs 1968. The world is in turmoil. So is twenty-thee-year-old Anna Rossi, who questions everything about her life, from her mostly Jewish heritage to her fear of intimacy. Summer in Europe with a childhood friend offers a perfect way to escape her demons. When her friend abandons her in Italy, Anna makes the rash decision to travel on with strangers. Her journey takes a perilous turn, leading her into conflict in Eastern Europe and into the heart of the Balkans.
Love, Intrigue, BetrayalâAnna must find the strength to survive.
June 23, 1968
Heat and dirt. The whir of tires against concrete. Sun waves scorch the shimmering surface of the autoroute. Beneath the huge sky only stunted bushes, hard-baked earth, and highway. Tiny cars like dolmas, stuffed with families and picnic gear, trail clouds of dust that choke Anna and Peter where they stand hugging the shoulder of the road.Â
Anna sighs. A bead of moisture trickles down between her breasts. The cotton blouse sticks to her skin. Beside her, Peter stoops beneath the weight of his backpack and sleeping bag, his blond-red beard shiny with sweat.Â
An almost empty car draws near. âAnna,â Peter barks, âthis one.â But the ancient Peugeot darts past her out-stretched thumb. Peter scowls and makes a fist. He jerks back from the road and motions her to join him. âCâmon. We havenât got all day.âÂ
Theyâd spent two hours already. And though there was a Zagreb-Belgrade bus, Peterâs hard stare told her he would keep on till they found a ride. She muttered, âIâm coming,â and lurched along on swollen feet. This fourth day of their venture out from Trieste, the ease of their first meeting seemed a memory from long ago.
Peter pointed to a tall bush recessed from the road. âYou stay here. Iâll wait down there.â
âWhatever you say, Master.â She glared as he drew his long, powerful body up to its full height and stalked off toward the bush. Something inside her went hard. She hadnât crossed the Atlantic to play these games. But all-out war would be a risk right here, in the middle of nowhere. So she took up her position in the spot heâd designated.
The afternoon wore on. The cars rolled past. The ridersâ smiles and waves made Anna try to see herself as they would. A young woman alone. Dark hair Medusan. Body bent. Clothes dirt-streaked, sweat-soaked. Arm locked into hitchhiker position. Smile affixed with clothes pins. Hardly an alluring sight. So much for Peterâs logic.
The steady hum of traffic lulled. The sun-inscribed white circles dimmed her vision. Anna lapsed out, thoughtless, until a huge Mercedes zoomed past, haloed by the rays that struck its shiny black and chrome veneer. Metallic edges sharply defined space, then vanished into sun-fog once again.
Brakes screeched. A car backed up. A door opened, then shut.
Damn Peter. Theyâd returned for her. A clear breech of road etiquette. That summerâs rule for drivers, at least according to the hitchhikers sheâd met, was a gradual stop, a pulled-down window, and an amiable inquiry as to destination. Her neck went cold beneath the sweaty knot of long, thick hair. But she would enter the car; she had reached her limit.
Lowering her gaze, she sniffed the air. No alcohol, at least. Then she straightened up and dared to look, which didnât help at all. Had she gone stupid from the sun?
The car was empty. Before her stood its occupant. Arms crossed, head cocked, he flashed an imperious smile. The man was slim and little more than average in height, but his clothes drew her attention, defying both the intense heat and the spartan South Slav dress code. A loose-fitting but well-cut navy linen jacket. A crisp white linen shirt, open at the throat. Knife-creased ecru linen slacks. Italian-cut black loafers, elegant against the dusty road. A Greek fishermanâs cap thrust rakishly back on the head. He looked like an ad for single malt in a glossy magazine.
Anna caught a whiff of lime and musk. Her cheeks grew hot, then hotter still when she saw him record the blush. She wanted him to speak, but he said nothing. Just nodded, on his lips a cool, sardonic smile that seemed to acknowledge her unspoken thoughts. Unwrinkled, well-groomed, the man exuded an impossible freshness. Apparition? Mirage? Clearly a miracle, given the conditions everyone else was subject to this Sunday on the autoroute to Belgrade.
She studied his face. Dark. Smooth-shaven. Slavic? Features precisely balanced, as if Europe had softened its eastern angles. High cheekbones, but not too prominent. Dark eyes with a hint of slant. Jawline well defined but rather narrow. Something in the look evoked medieval knights and poets, Byzantines and Ottomans. Sheâ       Â
âAnna.â Peterâs voice was cold. Heâd wandered up from his bush and stood beside her.
The stranger watched in silence. Anna thought she caught a flicker of disappointment as he rubbed his chin and volunteered, âUne jeune couple.â Sweeping off his black cap to reveal a head of dark, luxuriant hair, he bowed first to her, then to Peter, whose rigid mouth and squinting eyes condemned them both. âVous ĂȘtes trĂšs fatiguĂ©s?â His wry smile mocked his halting French.
 âNous ne sommes pas français,â she retorted, brushing aside a piece of hair that had flopped into her eye. âJe suis amĂ©ricaineâAnna Rossi.â
Peterâs blue eyes seethed. He stood rigid and silent.
âAmerican?â The strangerâs eyebrows arched. âRossi?â
Annaâs body stiffened. His accent sounded German. And why was he so puzzled?
Observing Peterâs red face, he asked, still smiling, âAnd your friend?â
âHeâs Danish. Peter Hansen.â Why had he chosen French? Her sun-bronzed skin? Her blue eyes, black-lined, thick-lashed? The narrow oval face? The nose some called âexoticâ? People would refer to Cleopatra or Durrellâs Justine, then ask where she came from.
âAh, myself I am a German. Max Heidl, at your service.â He gave a little bow.
German? Anna stiffened. But the man shook hands with both of them, and his rogueâs grin beguiled even Peter, who smiled back. She let herself relax, her mind shift gears, her body loosen.
âAnd now,â Max Heidl asked, âwhere do you go?â
âBelgrade.â Peter had finally found his voice.
The German shrugged as if there were no other answer. âSo we must put the bags away, isnât it?â Picking up her canvas satchel from Trieste, he headed toward the car.
The pristine trunk was empty save for one leather suitcase. âBrand new,â Peter whispered, sniffing the inside. She wasnât sure whether he meant the suitcase or the car.Â
Heidl stowed her dusty bag alongside his fine black one, then let Peter fling his heavy roll and backpack in on top. Helping her into the plush back seat, he motioned Peter to the front. Before he put the key in the ignition, the man turned around to her. Bright-eyed, he doffed his cap and flashed that impish grin. âYour chauffeur, Mademoiselle.â
In the speeding Mercedes Anna felt light. Peter and the driverâMax, she reminded herselfâbantered back and forth in Germanic English, trying to include her. But she began to disengage, yearning to be still and float.Â
Now and then a phrase of theirs broke through her mental screen. âIn Trieste . . . to Skopje . . . from Munich . . .â She wondered vaguely about the dashing German but didnât have the energy to follow these unfolding plots. Instead, she let the talk bounce off her while she savored being quiet and alone.
As she burrowed into the soft leather seat, she caught the rush of air through the open window, the rhythmic throb of rubber against the road. With growing lethargy, she fielded questions from the front. These two might pass the time telling their pilgrimsâ tales; she would free her mind to drift . . .
Anna's Dance is about a young womanâs odyssey through Eastern Europe and her own complicated, though mostly Jewish, heritage. As thoughtful and restless 23-year-old Anna Rossi ventures deeper into Eastern Europe she is forced to confront her familyâs mythically ambiguous past and comes to learn more about the Jewish diaspora through the men she meets along the way. Each man is a sort of caricature for the nation from which he hails and Annaâs feelings toward these men, whether romantic or otherwise, perhaps reveal her coming to terms with that nationâs story as it relates to her identity.
Though sometimes these men appear to be reductionist representations of their cultures, Anna's genuine hunger for their histories shows that Levy's narrative wants to give a voice to those who may otherwise have been silenced by history. Readers will root for Annaâs curiosity and fearlessness in asking strangers tough questions about who they are. Anna herself is somewhat of an amorphous character, but readers will be willing to let that go as we know that she is not even entirely sure of who she is. She is comprised mostly of memories, the stories of her heritage, and books. She is at once wary and bold, wayward and self-disciplined, and music has a magical hold over her. The narrative at times dips into this magic â between Anna's compulsion to dance, her family's mythically ambiguous past, and Levy's skillful writing on Eastern Europe as it is in Anna's mind and as it was in the past. But Anna's constant fear of anti-semitism tempers this magic and grounds the narrative in a world of tension both within and outside her.
Levy juxtaposes oftentimes dry conversations about Eastern Europeâs recent history with sensual prose to the effect that the reader might find themselves more interested in the scene Levy has created rather than how the characters are behaving within it. Prone to reverie, Annaâs Dance is less a chronological odyssey than it is a patchwork quilt of a young womanâs struggle to reconcile her personal identity with her complicated heritage. It may turn out that Anna's odyssey was futile, as Levy writes of Eastern Europe's newest generation: "Their own desires paltry against the epic scale of their predecessorsâ dreams."
I received an Advanced Review Copy of Annaâs Dance on Reedsy Discovery and read it on my laptop before bed. Moving, complicated, and visually exhaustive, I would absolutely recommend this to those who love historical fiction and are looking for an immersive summer read.