Kertes, Joseph

""The Afterlife of Stars moved me more than any other novel I've read in recent memory." --Tim O'Brien When Russian tanks roll into the public squares of Budapest to crush the Hungarian Revolution, brothers Robert and Attila Beck flee with their family to the Paris townhouse of their great-aunt Hermina. The year is 1956 and as their country changes forever, these two boys transform as well, confronting danger and wonders previously unknown. As they travel through minefields both real and imagined, Robert and Attila grapple with sibling rivalry, family secrets and incalculable loss. Along the way they encounter mysterious fellow travelers, bewildering sights of a nation in transition and surprising hilarity, all in pursuit of the one place they thought they'd lost forever: home. Elegant, tender and deeply funny, Joseph Kertes has crafted a journey filled with adventure and heartbreak. A meditation on both family and displacement, THE AFTERLIFE OF STARS is a tale of perseverance, faith and the unbreakable bond of brotherhood"--.

Lili Bandel, having escaped the evacuation of her village by the Nazis, makes her way to Budapest in 1944 where she is taken in by the Becks, a wealthy Jewish family, whose nephew, Paul, a disbarred young lawyer, goes to great lengths to protect his loved ones, including his brother Istvan, a dentist in a nearby city who takes refuge with his assistant.

When Jake admires Jerry's beautiful red shirt, the two boys strike up a friendship that must survive the prejudices of their families.

Jacob Beck, a young Jewish boy in 1959, feels his life is drab when confronted by the trappings of the Christmas holiday, but he learns to appreciate his own heritage when an invitation to share Christmas day with a friend turns out to be less than he expected.