Whispering Limelight

Clara Krauss, since birth, was entrusted with a unique gift that made her special, almost mystical, a gift that would define her fate and the fate of everyone around her, a fate that would guide her, and her family through the time of turmoil that defined their world, a world tainted by evil, a world with the stench of death. She was born in the womb of a huge loving family surrounded by happiness and comfort in one of the most beautiful places on earth: Vienna, Austria. A place where music flows through everything, just like the river that irrigates life to every corner of that city, to every blossom that colors the passing of the seasons.

By the time she became a teenager, that world she was part of was at war, a cleansing of sorts, a power struggle between the forces of evil that wanted to consume it all, purify the race they deemed superior and annihilate anybody who wasn't up to their standards, and on the other side, the world she represented, a world fueled by love, a world of inclusion, of justice, of equality, a world that breathes through the power of a smile.

Threatened by the imminent danger their beliefs posed, Clara and her family try escaping their fate, leaving their home behind, heading for freedom, escaping the threat of antisemitism that the German Third Reich imposed thorough Europe during World War II.

Chased by the Nazis, they find safety hiding in a secret basement underneath a farm in the middle of the Austrian countryside. There, they spend over two years in hiding, barely surviving through love, chance, and the hope that Clara's gift brought to her whole family, hope that would keep them alive through the terrible nightmare they had to endure, witnessing firsthand the worst genocide in history.

You see, for Clara, time not only flows in a straight line; for her, time whimsically skews in cyclical form. She travels to different points in her life through the whispering of the limelight that tempts her sanity as it murmurs and shines, illuminating the darkness she's confronted with.

Her life becomes a “déjà vu” as she experiences the future and the past in the present form and relives those moments again in their linear time frame as time elapses for everybody else, allowing her to share glimpses into the future with her family, giving them hope that they would survive, that the nightmare would be over.

Whispering Limelight is a tale of endurance, of survival, of unwavering faith, of selfless love. The tale of a girl who, against all odds, shines through, like the mightiest of stars, to conquer the darkness that seeks to consume everything that is good and noble in this world. It's the story that dwells inside every woman's heart.

by Ricardo Lebrija

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