The Book of Aron: A novel

The acclaimed National Book Award finalistmdashldquoone of the United Statesrsquo finest writersrdquo according to Joshua Ferris ldquofull of wit humanity and fearless curiosityrdquomdashnow gives us a novel that will join the short list of classics about children caught up in the Holocaust Aron the narrator is an engaging if peculiar and unhappy young boy whose family is driven by the German onslaught from the Polish countryside into Warsaw and slowly battered by deprivation disease and persecution He and a handful of boys and girls risk their lives by scuttling around the ghetto to smuggle and trade contraband through the quarantine walls in hopes of keeping their fathers mothers brothers and sisters alive hunted all the while by blackmailers and by Jewish Polish and German police not to mention the Gestapo When his family is finally stripped away from him Aron is rescued by Janusz Korczak a doctor renowned throughout prewar Europe as an advocate of childrenrsquos rights who once the Nazis swept in was put in charge of the Warsaw orphanage Treblinka awaits them all but does Aron manage to escapemdashas his mentor suspected he couldmdashto spread word about the atrocities Jim Shepard has masterfully made this childrsquos-eye view of the darkest history mesmerizing sometimes comic despite all odds truly heartbreaking and even inspiring Anyone who hears Aronrsquos voice will remember it forever.