The Afterlife Of Stars by Joseph Kertes

Nine-year-old Robert is pulled out of school as Russian tanks roll into Budapest to crush the Hungarian revolution in 1956. A giant banner of Stalin is unfurled as he is led through the main square, where several men are hanged from lampposts, their tongues sticking out. He watches with his teenage brother Attila as the Hungarian rebels topple a statue of Stalin in a park.

In the night, the Russians order his Jewish family out of their home with only what they can carry, stripping the house of its contents before they have even left. They are lucky to trade all the jewelry they own for some seats at the overcrowded train station. At the Austrian border, everyone must disembark and walk across an empty field to the frightening sound of explosions. It is a field of landmines. They are processed and stay at a convent where his pregnant sister dies in childbirth, before moving on to France.

His great-aunt Hermina escaped to Paris years ago and welcomes them in. A star of the opera, her world is music, art, and history, although Robert would most like to know about his relative Paul Beck—the family secret he is too young to hear. Beck worked with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to forge false papers to help Jews and others escape the Germans in the Second World War. Hermina and her family were on a train to a camp when Beck produced identity papers claiming they were Swedish, forcing the Germans to release them. Wallenberg and Beck have not been seen since.

Seen through the eyes of a child, everything is an adventure. There is intensity and humor, but the reality is harsh—men are shot in front of Robert, and the minefield produced flying limbs. Paris seems safe, but there is lingering fear when the Russians remove his parents with sacks over their heads. What is a child to think?

There is a theme of flowing time and history. Statues are torn down to be replaced, only to be toppled by the next invaders.

Once they reach Paris, the plot disperses into family conversations, and I felt the momentum slip away. Based on the author's childhood it rings true, but I found it did not hold together in the end.

Joseph Kertes has won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Award and the US National Jewish Book Award.

2014 / Tradeback / 256 pages