Mulybuck Holler to the Streets of Vienna: Ray Barger’s Vienna Love Blends Memoir, Romance, and Second Chances Abroad

TN, UNITED STATES, August 11, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With lyrical storytelling and a tender yet unflinching voice, veteran and author Ray Barger comes with Vienna Love: From the Creek to the Danube, a heartfelt, genre-blending novel inspired by his own life journey where he went from the coal-heated hills of Kentucky to a new beginning in postwar Austria.

Set in the 1950s, Vienna Love follows Ryan Barger. He is a self-described “hillbilly hick” from a log house in Mulybuck Holler, Kentucky, who is stationed in Salzburg after being drafted into the U.S. Army. A medic and country musician, Ryan’s world is beautifully transformed when he meets a Viennese girl named Marianne. She is a shy, beautiful music student who shares his passion for melody. This girl awakens his deepest longings for connection, family, and a different kind of future.

What begins as a chance encounter turns into a sweeping, deeply personal tale of cross-cultural love, healing after trauma, unforgettable passion, and the bravery it takes when choosing a new life far from everything familiar. Drawing heavily from his own memories, Barger captures postwar Europe with vivid details, going from army barracks and hospital dispensaries to smoky clubs and family breakfasts in Vienna’s quiet neighborhoods.

“This isn’t a pretty story,” Barger writes in the book’s opening. “It’s actually kinda ugly in places… I am telling a glorified version of my life.”

At once coming-of-age, romance, and post-war reflection, Vienna Love is about the small, powerful revolutions of the heart. It’s about falling in love with music, a woman, and a city and daring to stay.

A True Story Reimagined

While Barger insists Vienna Love is “not exactly a biography,” the spirit of the story is undeniably drawn from real life: his rural Kentucky upbringing in a two-room cabin, his time as a military medic in Austria, and the emotional evolution that followed. Barger shows what it means to grow up poor, find music in unlikely places, fall for someone unexpected, and reinvent yourself through love and commitment.

About the Author

Ray Barger was born in the hills of Eastern Kentucky in a home with no electricity or plumbing. A U.S. Army veteran, martial artist, lifelong storyteller, and someone with keen attention to details, Ray now lives in Summertown, Tennessee. He’s 93 years old and his wife died six years ago. He lives alone with a cat named Rainy. Vienna Love: From the Creek to the Danube is his novel inspired by true events and infused with personal truth and grace.

Book Title: Vienna Love: From the Creek to the Danube
Author: Ray Barger
Genre: Memoir-style Fiction / Historical Romance / Coming-of-Age
Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and major retailers
Formats: Print, eBook (Audiobook pending)

For Media & Press Inquiries

Ray Barger
Retired Army
+1 931-629-9292
raybarger446@gmail.com

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