“It seems to be just another esoteric historical tome published to appeal to an academic audience: An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin, by Rohan Kriwaczek, a nonfiction account of a little-known genre of music that was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church and almost wiped out by the Great Funerary Purges of the 1830’s and 40’s… Except for a few niggling details. There is no such thing as a funerary violin. [And] there were no Great Funerary Purges.” A literary joke? Sure looks like it, and the book’s publisher apparently wasn’t among those in on it.