Strings Attached is a pow­er­ful mem­oir about resilience in the face of unspeak­able tragedy, of how one man trans­formed his own heartache into a lega­cy of tri­umph and joy for his stu­dents. It is lyri­cal­ly told in alter­nat­ing chap­ters by Joanne Lip­man, a for­mer stu­dent, now an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist, and Melanie Kupchyn­sky, his daugh­ter, now a Chica­go Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra violinist.

Stu­dents knew Jer­ry Kupchyn­sky as ​“Mr. K,” the fierce Ukrain­ian-born school music teacher who rehearsed them until their fin­gers almost bled, and who made them bet­ter than they had any right to be. Away from the class­room, though, life seemed to con­spire against him. Strings Attached takes you on his remark­able jour­ney, from his child­hood on the run in Nazi Ger­many, to his life in Amer­i­ca car­ing for his two young daugh­ters and his invalid wife, to his search for his younger daugh­ter after she mys­te­ri­ous­ly dis­ap­pears. Heart­break­ing yet ulti­mate­ly tri­umphant, it is a tes­ta­ment to the aston­ish­ing pow­er of hope.