The Book of Aron Jim Shepard
When we meet Aron, he is a beguiling and not always happy young boy coming into awareness of himslef and his family’s struggles. They are soon driven form the countryside into Warsaw and their lives are changed forever. Aron and a group of boys and girls risk their lives scuttling around the ghetto, smuggling and trading contraband while they are hunted by blackmailers and Jewish and Polish and German police, as gradually things catastrophically worsen and survival is threatened. Eventually, Aron comes to know Janusz Korczak, a Jewish-Polish doctor famous for his advocacy of children’s rights, whose orphenage was relocated to the ghetto once the Nazis swept in. The Book of Aron looks squarely into the face of unspeakable suffering and evil, revealing the persistence of the human spirit despite all odds and the redemptive power of love. It is a breathtaking novel of extraordinary craft, humanity, and masterful storytelling.