Anne Michaels's spellbinding novel has quickly become one of the most beloved and talked-about books of the decade. At the age of seven during the Second World War, Jakob Beer is rescued from the mud of a buried Polish city and spirited to safety in Greece. There, in the seclusion of an unlikely savior, he spends the last years of the Occupation in precarious refuge. Decades later, after moving to North America, Jakob meets Ben, a young professor whose own connection to the wounding legacies of war kindle within him a fascination with the older man and his writing. An unforgettable exploration of grief and redemption, Fugitive Pieces draws us into the lives of its characters with compassion and recognition.
"A bold and beautiful novel...The richness and ambition of Michaels's work mark it as an important contribution to the literature of the Holocaust."
--Washington Post Book World--
"Lovely...musical and magical...Put this book alongside The English Patient."
--Chicago Tribune--
"World by blessed word, it is a gorgeously written book: aflame with the subzero cold of history and the passions of emotional comprehension."
--Boston Globe--