After Jakob’s death Ben, the child of concentration camp survivors, sets out in search of Jakob’s journals. When he meets Michaela, the possibility of happiness finally becomes a reality only to be snuffed out by a traffic accident. After the war they move 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. Athos nourishes Jakob with knowledge and words, applying balm to the wounds inflicted by such devastating loss. Seven-year-old Jakob Beer has escaped the Nazis, forced to listen to the cries of his parents as they were murdered while he lay hidden in a closet.

Written in richly beautiful language and studded with striking images, it’s a profound meditation upon the nature of loss, love and the healing power of words.Īthos Roussos discovers a mud-covered boy while excavating an archaeological site in Poland, and takes the child home to the Greek island of Zakynthos. Its appeal for me was partly its premise but I’ve always had a particularly soft spot for novels by poets which Anne Michaels is. I can’t remember why – there was no Richard and Judy at that point and it’s a properly literary novel – but it was a pleasure to see it flying out of the door. This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could.įugitive Pieces is one of those excellent books that sold satisfyingly well when I was a bookseller.

Fugitive pieces book review