In wartime London, the Simmonds family takes in a Jewish refugee from Warsaw named Dovidl, who is also a violin prodigy, and young Martin Simmonds and Dovidl become fast friends. When Dovidl loses his entire family in the camps, his adoptive father, a music impresario, arranges a debut for him--but the boy disappears just before he is due onstage. The family never recovers from the loss. Years later, after the deaths of his parents, Martin is sure that a young violinist he hears bears all the marks of Dovidls playing.... THE SONG OF NAMES was a winner of Englands Whitbread Prize.