A review by lisajha
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

5.0

One of THE. BEST. BOOKS. I've ever read. Michaels' prose left me speechless, her handling of the Holocaust and redemption astounding, and the function of landscape and home (especially as related to love and relationships) really sent it over the top for me. It's not for the faint-hearted--deals with really difficult themes of the Holocaust, emotional scarring/healing, loneliness/homelessness, dysfunctional families, death, etc. Tells the story of Jakob, a young boy living in Warsaw when the Nazis first march into the city to invade. The Nazis kill his entire family, but he survives by accident, and Athos, a Greek man visiting Poland finds, saves, and takes him in as his own son. Jakob later becomes a poet, and the novel follows his story along with another young man whose life later becomes intertwined with Jakob's. The book also includes lush, gorgeous descriptions of Greece and other settings, that if they were filmed, would be quintessential eye candy.

It's just a gorgeous, moving book. Just read it.