I bought this book at the Montgomery County Historical Society used book bag sale.

I can't find this book in my house anywhere!

I found it on the bookshelf in my bedroom! :)

I'm reading this book now.

I have no idea what I just read, but it was all very unsatisfying. From the many places, foods and objects with which I was not familiar to the story that jumped from Jakob to Ben (Who was Ben and why was he there?), I was left dangling.

To me, this book read like a dream about the Holocaust, but a dream that was just a bit beyond my understanding. In very lyrical language that shut me out of the story itself, I kept thinking that I was missing something. Where was this story going, and what did it want to say? Something profound about the Holocaust? I'm not sure.

What interested me first in the book, but then later vanished, were allusions to the Jews of Greece. That, in itself, would have made a good story for me. However, where this book went and what it was trying to say were really beyond me.

What started out as very beautiful was the relationship between Jakob, a Holocaust war orphan, and his adoptive Greek guardian, Athos. When the story abruptly broke from that vein, it made the bottom fall out of my enjoyment of this book completely. It was if someone had suddenly thrust a totally unrelated book into my hands. I never recovered any good feeling about the story thereafter.

Released at the International Day of the Book street festival.

I rescued this book from the torrential rains of the Kensington International Day of the book street festival.