A poetic and profoundly moving exploration of loss, memory and the enduring echoes of trauma.

Jakob Beer isa Polish Jewish boy who survives the Holocaust after witnessing the murder of his family. Hidden in the forests of Poland, Jakob is rescued by Athos, a Greek geologist who smuggles him to the island of Zakynthos and eventually to Canada. In exile, Jakob grows into a writer and translator, his life shaped by silence, grief, and the quiet acts of love and learning that sustain him.

The novels second half follows Ben, the son of Holocaust survivors, whose path crosses with Jakobs and whose life is shaped by inherited trauma. Through Ben, we see how the past reverberates through generations, and how memoryboth personal and collectivecan bind people across time.

Written in Michaels signature lyrical prose, Fugitive Pieces is both a love letter to language and an elegy for those lost. It is a novel that confronts horror without sensationalism and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit with beauty and compassion.