Skillfully written by Jurek Becker, the Heinrich-Mann and Charles Veillon prizewinning author of "Jacob the Liar," The Boxer is the literary rendition of a Holocaust survivor's tale. It is the story of Aron Blank, a man who lost his wife to the Nazi concentration camps and became who separated from his two-year-old son. After the war, Aron's quest to find his son, redeem their bond, and make a life for themselves in East Berlin is a haunting tale of turmoil, post-traumatic adjustment, and an unforgettable portrait of Jewish life in postwar Germany. Highly recommended reading.

Jacob is a former cafe owner who now works for a railroad station under rule of the Gestapo. He was put in a Jewish ghetto 3 years beforehand, where they may not walk outside after 8 pm, have to wear stars on their clothes, and may not have several items, including a radio. At one point, outside a police station, Jacob hears news that the Russians are in Bezanika, a town 120 km away, and are sure to free their ghetto soon. Rumors fly that Jacob has a contraband radio, and he is asked daily for updates. Realizing that news reports of impending freedom, no matter how shaky the source, is giving his community enough hope to hang on and survive, Jacob manufactures ways to tell plausible lies, even though he is uncomfortable.

The author spent his youth in a ghetto and concentration camp, and his depiction of life in the ghetto, where people starve to death in the streets if they are not shot for some transgression under Nazi rule, is horrifying. Yet he plays the interactions between community members, particularly between Jacob and Kowalski, his oafish friend of 40 years, and Lena, a 9-year-old orphan he adopted after her parents are taken to a camp. It is a touching display of people struggling to form a life when others are trying to beat it, if not kill it, out of them.

"JACOB THE LIAR," by Jurek Becker is a good example of how humane a person can be despite the place and situation that he/she is found. In this case is inside the ghetto, where Jacob Heym, a jew prisoner of the Germans accidentally overheard the news of a German radio saying, "troops succeeded in halting the Bolshevist attack 12 miles from Bezenika." He spread the news with the good intention of bringing hope and faith to the abandoned people there. And to stop the suicides that were committed due to the desperation of no help. Unfortunately, time past and nothing happened until one day someone betrayed them and went with the Germans, who immediately responded to this in search of the imaginary radio. The book is great as the movie, except that imagination plays a big role here so stop wasting time and check it out.

Umm...... How do I find out how many pages it has?!?!?!?!?

Becker, who is known for the book Jacob the Liar, starts out with a fascinating premise: a son of a Holocaust survivor, residing in E. Germany, finds that his father and some friends are holding a former concentration camp guard a prisoner in a cabin. It is the 1970's, and the son wrestles with this information. What, if anything, should he do? Unfortunately, the premise is the only worthwhile thing about his book. It just does not deliver. The characters, especially the son, is superficial, not drawn with much, if any, depth. I couldn't figure out why the son even cared about what his father was doing; he didn't seem to care about much else. This book was a real disappointment.

Becker's Bronstein's Children is (to use a cliche) a compulsively readable narrative. Becker dramatically illustrates the complex relationship between the older and younger generations of German Jews--the older having lived through Hitler's Final Solution and the younger not understanding why the past constantly haunts them. The chapters alternate between the past and the present, showing that history pervades the very being of those Jews living in Germany after the horrors of World War II. The past is omnipresent both for those who lived through it and those who did not but must live with its consequences and try to understand it.