Aharon Appelfeld, one of Israel’s most acclaimed writers, escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Transnistria, at the age of 10, and then wandered the forests for two years, until he was picked up by a Red Army unit, in 1944. Appelfeld, who reached Palestine in 1946, has set most of his novels in central Europe in the run-up to World War II. In a departure, Adam & Thomas (Triangle Square), a book for young readers, tells the story of two Jewish boys, both nine years old, who band together in the forest and survive the last winter of World War II. The boys evade soldiers, find berries and consider the big questions, such as: “Is God watching over us?” — M.S.
(American Jewish World, 4.8.16)
