‘La’s Orchestra’ plays heartfelt tune

   Alexander McCall Smith takes a break from his many delightful series (including the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency) for a stand-alone novel, “La’s Orchestra Saves the World.” It is a lovely tale of one small life and its impact on the larger world.
   Through a poignant series of events, La — please don’t call her Lavender — finds herself a young widow in a village in Suffolk, England. But her peaceful retreat soon becomes enmeshed in the fear and grit of World War II.
   Not one to sit idle while others are sacrificing, La expands her garden and signs on to the Women’s Land Army, tending chickens for an arthritic farmer.
   It is a small job, just a few hours each day including the bicycle ride back and forth between her home and the farm. Not a big enough distraction to relieve her loneliness. The Cambridge-educated La misses lively conversations with friends her age. Reading and listening to the radio occupy much of her free time.
   At least until two very different men enter her life.
   Tim works at keeping the nearby air base in supplies and drops by La’s house at the suggestion of a mutual friend. He misses his wife and life before the war. Upon noticing La’s flute, Tim confesses to being a “very indifferent trumpet player in my day” and mentions that some of the men on base would like to play in a band. La realizes she can find instruments and local villagers to help fill out an orchestra and volunteers her services.
   When Tim learns that the farmer La helps could use another set of hands, he recommends a Polish refugee named Feliks, a pilot who lost sight in one eye when he was shot down. Feliks also happens to play the flute.
   With La as conductor, the orchestra gathers with plans for a Christmas concert — and a victory concert once the war is over, though no one is sure when or if that will be. Spirits are lifted even though the music is a little flat and rusty.
   At the same time, La discovers unexpected feelings for Feliks, who is quiet and formal and offers her little reason for hope. In fact, she grows suspicious that he might not be what he claims.
   And thus the tale revolves around the healing power of music and the mysteries of the human heart.
   No one is better than Smith at revealing the gifts of the ordinary person and how small gestures often are much bigger than they seem. And in this historical outing, you feel the anxiety of rural life in wartime England and the uncertainty of whether the good guys really will win.
   My hope is the prolific Smith will continue to find snippets of time to create more admirable and very human characters like La.