Fugitive Pieces

When Athos Russos discovers a mud-covered boy while conducting an archeological dig in Poland, he takes the child home to the Greek Island of Zakynthos. Seven-year-old Jakob Beer has escaped the Nazi’s forced to listen to the cries of his parents when they are murdered while he lay hidden between the boards. Athos nourishes Jakob with knowledge and words, applying the help he needed to mend the wound left after his terrible loss. After the war the moved to Toronto, but when his beloved mentor dies and his brief marriage fails, Jakob returns to Greece to work as a translator and write poetry. When he meets Michaela, the possibility of happiness finally becomes a reality, only to be shattered by a traffic accident. After Jakob dies, Ben the child of concentration camp survivors, sets out in search of his journals.

“Every moment is two moments. Alex’s hairbrush propped on the sink: Bella’s brush. Alex’s bobbypins: Bella’s hairclips turning up in strange places, as bookmarks...