Description
Ÿ?? Likely to be the book that breaks Jim Shepard - long-respected by US literary giants - out into mainstream attention, and will be positioned for prizes, Published the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two
Ÿ?? Jim Shepard held events at Waterstones Piccadilly with Jim Crace, and at King's Place with Eva Hoffman and Camila Batmanghelidjh on his appearance in the UK in July 2015
Ÿ?? Shortlisted for the Carnegie Award 2016 for excellence in Fiction, alongside A Little Life and The Sympathizers
Ÿ?? "A remarkable novel destined to join the shelf of essential Holocaust literature...The Book of Aron is a story of such startling candour about the complexity of heroism that it challenges each of us to greater courage . . .Shepard has created something transcendent and timeless in this slim masterpiece . . . Shepard dares to move his narrative down the asymptote of despair, and the moral heroism he describes on that path toward infinity, you will never forget" Ÿ?? Ron Charles, Washington Post
Ÿ?? "Any number of writers have published fiction about the Holocaust, but few have succeeded in producing a work as simple and yet so moving as The Book of Aron . . . Shepard chronicles with compassion and clarity what happens as the Nazi persecution grows ever worse" Ÿ?? Sunday Times
Ÿ?? "Jim Shepard, a writer of extraordinary historical vision, psychological acuity, and searing irony, presents a profoundly moving portrait of its young narrator Aron; explores, with awe, our instinct to adapt and survive; and through the evolving consciousness of his phenomenally commanding young narrator, exposes the catastrophic impact of war and genocide on children" Ÿ?? Carnegie Award
Ÿ?? "The technique is a kind of under-writing - emotional bathos - the sort of annalistic approach endorsed by Berel Lang [...] when he suggested that Holocaust writing at its sincerest and most compelling takes the form of history, rather than fiction or poetry. The Book of Aron has a biblical feel: a rascal's End of Days. Its narrator is, from the outset, an unruly force of nature . . . Moving" Ÿ?? Times Literary Supplement
Ÿ?? "By reclaiming an insignificant voice and deploying it to observe a great man, Shepard turns hell into a testament of love and sacrifice. The Book of Aron is his best novel yet, a short and moving masterpiece" Ÿ?? Joshua Ferris, Guardian
Ÿ?? "It is extraordinary how Shepard, using the voice of a poorly educated boy, can conjure up such a powerful story. Despite the inevitability of the conclusion, it is utterly shattering. The Book of Aron is a masterpiece" Ÿ?? Antonia Senior, The Times Book of the Month. Aron is a nine-year-old Polish Jew, and a troublemaker. His mother despairs of him. His father beats him. He tries to be good. But in 1939, as the walls go up around the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, as lice and typhus rage, families starve and fight, it is Aron who finds a way - however dangerous, however treacherous - to survive. It isn't until he lands at the feet of Janusz Korczak - orphanage director and reluctant hero - that he learns of something greater than survival.
