The Hawk of Yonezawa: Historical Fiction with J.S Bach - Paperback

The Hawk of Yonezawa is a short novel, or novella, about the fictional adventures of Johann Sebastian Bach who is transported to the island of Japan. Bach is on a rare trip outside his world of Leipzig, Germany, a little after the year 1742. The coach breaks down and he misses the concert that would have featured George Frederic Handel performing his own works by him. On the return trip he meets a twelve-year-old boy and his young mother.

They find that he knows how to play the organ and so they invite him to fix the one at their church. Bach refuses graciously, but once more the stage coach breaks down, and Bach is transported in a dream with the boy and his mother from him to Japan, where he is beset with adventures while trying to fix the local church organ. This novella is written for a general, religious and musically inquisitive audience. It is family fare, also suitable for high school and college readers.

Donald D. Joye is a retired professor at Villanova University. He has been enthusiastically involved in classical music since he was thirteen years old.After growing up on Long Island, New York, attending college in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he settled in Philadelphia, where he and his wife Claudia raised their three boys.