Aharon Appelfeld is one of the world's greatest living novelists, and this novel demonstrates his many virtues. Like his previous works "The Age of Wonders" and "The Immortal Bartfuss" it is short, it concentrates on Holocaust survivors, and its style is sparse, elliptical. Erwin Siegelbaum is in late middle age and has spent decades riding the trains in Austria. He makes his living by finding Jewish memorobillia in the now Judenrein countryside and buying them from gentiles who cannot recognize their value. It is a depressing business, since the Austrian countryside is drab, ugly, and ungenerous, even without the vicious anti-Semitism that Siegelbaum encounters. One converted Jew wishes that it could be wiped away like Sodom and Gommorah, and Siegelbaum at the end of the novel wishes that he could burn one town down to the ground. At the same time he is searching for vengeance against the Nazi officer who murdered his parents.

The legitimacy of this quest is not questioned by Siegelbaum, but by the end it is clear that it is not a sufficient or adequate solution to Siegelbaum's miserable, loveless life. What, after all is it like to avenge one parents, not in the abstract, but one's own actual parents? As in his earlier novels, there is the inevitable sickening ambiguity. His parents, Communist organizers, were not cruel to him, and they made considerable sacrifices for their cause. But they were often naive about the Ruthenians they tried to organize, they attacked Jewish capitalists, and were of course compromised by the Stalinist nature of the party. Erwin's father shortchanged his education, because he saw a normal education as an evil bourgeois plot (a view, given the nature of authoritarian Europe in the 1930s, that is not entirely inaccurate). His mother is burdened by a world-weariness that drains life from her before her death in a camp. After the war Siegelbaum encounters his parent's former Communist comrades and in his wandering he experiences the dissolution and decay of their ideals. If he is trapped by the past, others cannot be bothered to remember it (he encounters a quarter-Jew who is surprised to find out that the Old Testament did not mention Jesus.)

And so Siegelbaum rides the trains, bribing the waiter to switch the radio to the classical music station. Zionism or Orthodoxy do not bring him comfort and solace("Religious Jews frighten me"); his connection to Judaism that forced upon him by history and inertia: "My memory is a powerful machine that stores and constantly discharges lost years and faces. In the past I believed that travel would blunt my memory; I was wrong. Over the years, I must admit, it has only grown stronger. Were it not for my memory, my life would be different--better I assume." Recently however "A glass of cognac, for instance, separates me from my memory for a while. I feel relief as if after a terrible toothache."

Siegelbaum's connections to women are brief: "Love for a station or two is love without pretense and soon forgotten. Any contact beyond that pollutes the emotions and threatens to leave behind recriminations. Women, I regret to say, don't understand this. They do themselves a disservice, and me too, of course." This passage perfectly captures a certain variation of masculine bad faith. There are many other finely observed passages, whose absence of metaphor or stylistic eccentricity more sharply reveal Appelfeld's psychological acuity: "At night, before going to sleep, [my mother] would read me poems by Heine. I doubt that I understood anything. But the sounds flowed softly into my ears. I would be cut loose from the waking world and slip into deep sleep. Even in difficult times, when she grew morose, swallowing drink after drink, she would pick up a book and read, like someone preparing for better times." There is the disconcerting atmosphere of the small town of Gruendorf: "There seems to be no air like Gruendorf's, and during my first stays here I didn't even realize why. But now I know: it is the subtle fragrance that rises from the poppies. An odorless smell, a smell that has no obvious sign, but that directly works on the nervous system. In the past I used to flee from the place immediately, but I soon learned that flight was no use." But perhaps the supreme value of Appelfeld's message in his not his observation, but his restatement in a uniquely subtle and unmeretricious way of a vital truth. Sacrifice may be a sign of virtue, but suffering does not make one a better person. In few other authors work is it made clear that being a victim is not enough, one has still suffered but is not redeemed thereby. "If I had a different life, it wouldn't be happy. As in all my clear and drawn-out nightmares. I saw the sea of darkness, and I knew that my deeds had neither dedication nor beauty. I had done everything out of compulsion, clumsily, and always too late."

Bizarre, disturbing, compelling--a unique voice.

Bismark once noted that "war is diplomacy by other means" but Applefeld would phrase that a bit differently, I believe. Something like "Peace is war on smaller scale", perhaps.

Intrinsically, this book is about the underlying and ancient hatreds and grievances that have dogged central Europe for more than a century and were in essence not changed a whit by the war itself.

Erwin Siegelbaum's parents were killed in the Holocaust, a fate he himself barely managed to avoid. Erwin's makes his living traveling throughout central Europe visiting local fairs and markets looking for unrecognized treasures of Jewish iconography, which he buy's on the cheap and resells to rich Jewish collectors at a premium. This keeps him constantly on the road pursuing his real occupation-looking for the man who he believes is responsible for his parent's deaths so as to extract revenge.

The book is full of irony-Erwin exploits his religion and his fellow Jews for his living to pursue an avocation not altogether consistent with his religion's message of tolerance and forgiveness. He is constantly mistaken for a non-Jew and subjected to rabid anti-Semitic rants of his other passengers whom he also tries to exploit to fine his nemesis. And so on.

Applefeld is an Israeli citizen who writes in Hebrew. Even translated, the pace and mannerisms of the translation yield a sense of authenticity and Old World feel to the text. His prose is concise and spare-yet emotional and evocative at the same time. It all adds up to a very unique and original writing voice.

This is not a happy book-it is stressful, haunting and depressing. It is also insightful and compelling reading. You will finish exhausted and emotionally drained. If that's your cup of tea, then this is your novel.

I have read three books about the Holocaust in the last several days, 2 that are exceptional, and one that was exploitative trash. The interesting aspect is that the two works that were so emotionally effective, works that left this reader feeling the weight and oppressive horror that is genocide were both novels. They were novels by an extraordinary writer and a survivor of the camps, Mr. Aharon Appelfeld. I do not know the numbers, but I would venture to guess that the non-fiction book which is commented on somewhere on my personal page, will outsell this work 100 to one, or maybe even a higher ratio. The non-fiction work is either the appendage to a lawsuit, or the bacillus that spawned it, either way its type of history is cheap opportunism. The fact the book is full of histrionics, incompetent business documentation, and shrill sound bytes, ensures it will sell. The issue it covers is valid; it's the Author's methods I take issue with.

"The Iron Tracks", is a terribly disturbing look at one man's life to avenge the death of his parents. It is a journey he set out on alone, and one he sees through to its conclusion, again on his own. Like his main character that also survived the camps the Author writes this book because serious subjects, horrifying subjects need to be documented repeatedly. And for those who ask how many books are enough, the answer is there will never be enough, enough of this type. As to the other I refer to the answer is in its specific case, one is too many. Releasing a book within 24 hours of a lawsuit against the company the book is about is the vilest sort of marketing there is, for remember this is about the murder of millions. This is not a topic that requires marketing, Madison Avenue manipulation, and greed to drive it. The horror of Genocide is absolute the evil is absolute. To speak or write of it brings the full weight to bear no enhancements are needed.

Erwin rides the same trains endlessly for decades in search of the man and his demise that he believes will end his decades of suffering and wandering. He constantly meets with other veterans of the war who believe that the Genocide was not only correct and justified, but also actually accomplished. He traces his self described oval with his annual stops, and how the oval is chipped away at as his sharing he is a Jew is freely confided with those who have welcomed him for decades, but now turn their backs without hesitation. In his decades long hunt he also retrieves the lost objects of Judaism, be they rare illuminated Haggadah, a mezuza, or a kiddush cup.

This is only the second work I have read by Mr. Appelfeld, but based on this and, "Katerina"; I intend to continue through his published works. The subject matter he has spent his career as a writer sharing with the world's readers is the type that appropriately leaves a reader emotionally exhausted, bearing a sense of futility, and trying to summon the question why, once again.

Read both Authors' work and decide for yourself.

A Daughter's Gift of Love is the amazing survival story of a young girl, her mother, and her expierence in the holocaust. The author portrays this story by the eyes of Trudi Birger, a Holocaust survivor. This is a can't put down book. Where every page there is something new, something dangerous, somthing scary going to happen; it's the truth of the Holocaust.

As a daughter of Holocaust survivors, i was touched so deeply by Ms. Birger's account of her years of chaos and persecution during those treacherous years. As a young girl in WWII, Trudi Birger could be compared to Anne Frank, in terms of her resourcefulness and wit in the face of danger and death. She and her mother protected each other in the truest sense, each one kept the other alive time and time again. Would they have been so emotionally connected in times of peace, or did this unfathemed circumstance create a unique bond between a mother and daughter that very few of us can ever understand? No matter what, the reader is deeply affected hearing story after story of how close the author and her mother comes to dying,and how they manage to defy death. Since my mom has been pretty silent about her experiences in concentration camp, I am grateful to Ms. Birger for the details. I now know why "potatoes" stir up deep feelings for my mother, that to find a potato peel in the midst of that bland soup provided by the Nazi's, was like finding a piece of gold. The examples go on and on, some too painful to discuss. Yet, this is an uplifting book because once again it shows that you can keep a person in bondage, but it is very difficult to kill the human spirit and one's basic desire to survive! This should be Oprah's next read.

I have now read a good portion of this Author's novels, and while not qualified to comment on them from a theological perspective, I continue to find his work some of the finest writing on individuals or on Humanity that I have read.

Mr. Appelfeld's novel, "The Healer", contains elements that I feel were greatly expanded upon in his other works. His books, "Unto The Soul", "To The Land Of The Cattails", and "The Conversion", all came to mind during my reading. These elements were similar but not repetitive, the Author was at times giving an alternative perspective on an issue that he examined from a different viewpoint before. If you have read the other works I mention you will feel a familiarity with the circumstances and issues he deals with here.

This is not a post Holocaust Novel rather it is more akin to, "To The Land Of The Cattails" in time. Religion plays a central role as it always does and here he again is dealing with regret and guilt with several characters. This time it is not as clearly portrayed as a conversion, or a total void where faith would normally reside. The Father in the story is constantly examining what he could have done, and how those results would have allowed him to change the present. The character ruminates on the type of Jew he was as a scholar and the effects it had upon his life. This is a man who has no use for religion, or who buries his remorse for abandoning it well.

Religion splits the Family when the Wife and Daughter seek to become what they have shunned. They travel to the, "Healer", in a remote isolated locale in search of faith or perhaps what they hope faith will gain them. This spilt amongst Family members becomes much more than theological, and Mr. Appelfeld brings the complexity of his characters to the reader without making the issues clear for a simpleton, he never stoops, rather he pays tribute to his readers.

The bulk of the story takes place on an isolated mountain, and inside an inn, however as the story is brought to a close the journey the Father takes progresses, and the events that journey foreshadows with little subtlety, is as powerful as any of the other works of his I have read.

Elior has studied Jewish mysticism in general, and Habad mysticism in particular, for the last several decades. Her teacher and mentor was the great Gershom Sholem, pioneer in the field. She presents the material logically, clearly, and, most of all, entertainingly and in a way the general public can understand. Read it!

"Unto The Soul", by Mr. Aharon Appelfeld is the most complex of his works I have read. I use the word less as an indicator of difficulty, rather to represent how much he includes in this story. It also differs from previous works in that the events take place almost exclusively in one place; there is none of the travel that is fundamental to many of his books. It also is not specifically a Holocaust themed book, and that may contribute to its area of confinement. The main characters are not dealing with a specific event, rather a single decision that creates all the conflict two people could handle.

When this brother and sister pledge to continue the guardianship of a cemetery of Jewish martyrs that their Grandfather has kept watch over for 60 years, they are placed in an unnatural condition that would require impregnable faith, belief in what they agreed to do, and living lives so limited they seem more appropriate to those who take the most extreme of religious vows of abstention, poverty, and isolation. And unlike many who choose such a life, they are completely alone, there is no structure to support them.

Their isolation on a mountaintop does offer some degree of security from the consequences of anti-Semitism, a barrier to disease, and during the winter these protections are nearly impregnable. The winters are also nearly endless, the Pilgrims do not support the caretakers as they did their Grandfather, and Gad is not his Grandfather's equal. He cannot stop those who do not respect what they seem to value and those that care for it, by refusing them entry when no donation is offered. And these contributions are the only income there are to have.

The book covers 8 years of their custodianship, their efforts to remain true to their pledge, and the results of living in isolation so nearly complete as to be unnatural. The challenges both mental and physical are not only immense they place this brother and sister in an environment when certain conduct can be devastating.

The Author puts every aspect of their lives under intense pressure and then we watch. Does their religion maintain them, do social mores and customs hold, does near isolation actually provide a degree of protection the idea suggests? Can these two people age 18 and 25 when they begin their task survive, maintain their sanity, and if so, how?

The Author also interjects facets that were certainly chosen with care, but as to their interpretation, the answers are not as apparent. Not far from where they watch their cemetery there is a Christian burial ground that features prominently in both the Grandfather's life, and those of his Grandchildren. The plots they care for are arranged precisely, the damage from weather is constant, and when the weather is not a foe, anti-Semitics provide the desecration.

A very fascinating book that would probably only get better with the level of understanding of Judaism the reader has. However this is not a prerequisite for enjoying this man's work.

These stories are the equivalent of being hit on the head with a literary sledgehammer. The points that they make (the Arabs as The Other, the Holocaust as having an impact on modern Israeli society, etc.) are pretty obvious to anyone who has any knowledge of Israel or Jewish history. They occasionally read like writing class exercises, actually.

That being said, the stories are a good window into Israeli society and show elements which you don't see on the news. For excellent Israeli literature, though, I'd have to recommend Yaakov Shabtai, Amos Oz or A.B. Yehoshua.

This is a wonderful book of short stories which contradicts the sterotypical picture of Israelis so often portrayed in the nightly news. It shows (mostly from the female point of view) the nuances of many types of Israelis, from religious to secular, from Ashkenazi to Sephardic, from Arab to Jew. In particular, it brings out the human side of each of its characters and demonstrates that feelings change from time to time and situation to situation. These are beautiful studies of human interaction.

I have four favorite stories. In "A Room on the Roof", a woman's husband goes to Texas, and she decides to build a new room on the second story of her home while he's gone. Her Jewish contractor leaves her alone with three Arab laborers during the construction process. She is not sure to how to react to their presence near and in her home. "The Road to Cedar City" tells of an Israeli couple (Hassida and Yehiel) and their son Yuval who are traveling in the United States when their rented car breaks down. The wife is unhappy when she learns that she must share a ride in a minivan with another young Israeli couple and their baby who are from Jerusalem. A talkative minivan driver further complicates matters by running his mouth during the entire trip. "Mother's Photo Album" is about a Dr. Joshua Hoshen who looks into his mother's medical record after she is hospitalized in a mental institution. He pieces together her life from what he reads in her record and uses a photograph to help resolve his anguish about what he discovers. A most notable story is "The Homesick Scientist" in which eldery Zerubavel wlcomes his nephew, a well-known Israeli scientist who lives in the United States, as he returns to visit Israel after 21 years. His nephew had frequently spent summers with Zerubavel after Zerubavel's own son Uri had been killed while on reserve duty. Zerubavel, although he had eagerly anticipated his nephew's visit, isn't sure what his nephew's motives were for returning after such a long absence.

Great, tight, vivid, exact writing about the Important Things (universal concerns, issues, and feelings) in the mood of a calm and astute observer/chronicler -- with soul. Perfect. Although these stories are primarily concerned with Israelis, I encouraged an East Indian friend to read "The Homesick Scientist"; it spoke to him so deeply of his own private experience that he immediately ordered the book (from Amazon, of course).

"Katerina" by Aaron Appelfeld is an original look at The Holocaust. This is a piece of history, an event that has been written about countless times, but this writer's perspective is unique. The book is a historical novel; however the circumstances he describes could have, and probably did happen in very similar form.

The protagonist Katerina is not a Jew, she is not raised to respect Jews, and her surroundings are that of anti Semitism. However events lead to her working for a Jewish Family, and as the years pass she learns to understand their culture and their religious beliefs. As her knowledge grows so does her respect for them and with it a steady degrading of the hatred for anti-Semitism she can no longer justify.

A horrifying act of cruelty to which she reasonably responds leads to her imprisonment. And it is in this prison setting the Author creates for her decades of fear and loathing of those she came from and their hatred of Jews for which she feels such contempt. Her one consistent visitor is her Lawyer, again a Jew. She is kept in this prison where the trains that carry the Holocaust's victims pass by each day. She lives with people who happily celebrate the genocide while clothing themselves in the victim's clothes and other personal effects that were confiscated.

After half of her life is passed in prison the War ends and the prisoners walk free. Even her freedom is tainted, as she is forced to endure the celebratory attitude of her fellow prisoners that all the Jews are gone, the killers of Christ have themselves been killed. So even when she returns to her village that she left behind 63 years in her past she does so knowing the people she adopted as equals have been decimated, and people that never knew her then, now know her as the murderess, the legend she has become.

The Author portrays a scene of this very old woman coming upon what was a Temple, and the effect of the writing is as galvanizing as any thing you may read. This is a book that is unlike others books about the Genocide of WWII, all the horror is there, but it is left more to your mind's eye than placed before you in all its historical butchery. The emotional trauma this woman endures during the War combined with the balance of her suffering in life, is of a magnitude that is awesome both in its scope and depth of despair.

Katerina is a Ruthenian peasant woman (a Gentile), forced to work for a Jew. Over time, she becomes fascinated with the Jews. The story takes place in the Ukraine, before the Holocaust. Interesting insight into anti-Semitism as well as life as a peasant.

In my opinion, this is Appelfeld's best novel.

Pity poor Aharon Appelfeld for contributing to popular Jewish writers writing on the subject of Jew-loathing! Pity poor Schocken Book, which has been going down and down as a publisher of Jewish subjects, which can't seem to publish a happy book on the current Jewish status in the world and has to resort to continuing the old Jew and his terrible living conditions and self-loathsome. As a Lubavitcher Jew, I tell you "The Conversion" has no saving grace for Judaism, but gives added proof --if that's the word--to anti-Semites today that Jews remain miserable. Not true, and "The Conversion" misses any happy feeling abot Judaism. Gloria, on the contrary, is neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a reflection of Karl--indeed all the book's characters are reflections of Karl. Pity. Throughout history such books have ben written. I pray that Mr. Appelfeld, who is an a-one Zionist born to Judaism and who lives as a non-Jew, writes "happy." There's enough sadness in the world. Maybe, and I pray, that Schocken Books will get wise--there's a whole market of Jewish readers out there who want books focusing on the merits of Judaism. May I suggest to Schocken Book and Aharon Appelfeld that they get some Jewish pride in their blood--before they go the way of all misguided flesh. Yes, I am disappointed and sad that "The Conversion" has been published. I'll read no more of Appelfeld's books. What a waste of good writing.

I have been reading several works by Mr. Aharon Appelfeld. Many of his books relate the stories of Holocaust survivors before, during and after the Genocide. "The Conversion", takes place two generations prior to the Holocaust and addresses the topic the title suggests.

Theologians must debate the concept of conversion on dozens of levels, some as basic as is conversion possible as an absolute. The practice is widespread in the setting of this Austrian City, and the reasons for it are as varied as the people who make the decision. And among the converted there remains a great deal of emotion as to what their own conversion means, why theirs was justifiable and others not. What constitutes a frivolous conversion? Some would say any conversion is so classified, others that convert so as to receive a promotion feel their actions are valid. Some feel safe in their decision if a Parent gave their approval.

Mr. Appelfeld tells a complex tale that is very serious, however he exposes the hypocrisy or perhaps the lunacy that religious conversion creates. A person is denied a high government post because he or she is a Jew. This same person spends a few hours with a Priest, the bells ring, and suddenly this same person is not only considered for the job, but is rewarded with it. Who is more deluded, the person who converts, or the person who accepts them because of their conversion?

As he always does Mr. Appelfeld explores enough layers to show readers how complex a subject he is presenting, and how much more is left to be discussed. Why would a Jew become a Christian and almost immediately become the first in line to defend the people, the group, the traditions he just turned his back upon? One convert makes the transition from allowing a Priest to accept and convert him to Christianity only to see the same person see the Priest as a predator as a short time passes.

All of the writing of Mr. Appelfeld's that I have read is powerful. The end of this work is especially strong as he creates an ending that foretells the future. I don't believe many Authors could have written the ending with credibility much less with the emotion the reader has thrown over them.

I recommend this man's books to anyone. The topics may seem to be those you may have read before; however in every instance of his work even the familiar causes emotions to surface that would just be read without pause in another work. The man is truly a remarkable writer.

The Conversion is exquisitely crafted. When the message hits of the overwhelming sense of loss, and the very gradual understanding by the main characters of the hopelessness and unworthiness of "belonging", you can hardly tolerate the pain. Ithits you so hard tha t you don't want it to end like you know it will. Each of his books shows the great trauma and alienation of events unexplainable . All powerful.

Sylvia Seltzer Hougland

This is one of the weaker books of Appelfeld in my opinion. It certainly is still an interesting novel, though if you're just getting accustomed to Appelfeld's work, I would recommend Katerina, The Iron Tracks, or Badenheim 1939.

The titular Bartfuss has lived a largely underground existence since surviving the Holocaust, amassing an ever increasing fortune as a smuggler even as his alienation from those around him--particularly his estranged wife and two daughters--continues apace. As a record of a man's journey from a kind of living death, this book benefits a lot from Appelfeld's terse, simple prose, which keeps the tale rolling at a brisk pace. He's the sort of writer who knows exactly what he can state explicitly and what he can leave unsaid. It may just be me, but I was not altogether convinced by the book, partly due to the somewhat abrupt ending. I will tentatively suggest that the author was only partly successful in dramatizing Bartfuss' internal conflicts... or maybe I'm just missing the point of Appelfeld's minimalist artistry. I will still recommend the book, and suggest that who anyone likes it should also seek out Appelfeld's "Badenheim 1939."

This is a remarkable book written with words hidden and unstated. For Bartfuss, the holocaust should produce "greatness of soul" either from himself or other survivors. He is frustrated by his inability to do so and give freely. Here is a highly complex character living in Jaffa, Israel. And it should be appreciated by many thoughtful readers.