Jakob Beer

The narrator and protagonist of Part 1, Jakob tells of being a seven-year-old Jewish boy in Poland during World War II. Hiding behind the wallpaper in the family house, he avoids being killed or captured like the rest of his family and neighbors. He hides in the terrifying river and forest until he approaches and is rescued by a Greek scientist/scholar, Athanasios (Athos) Roussos. Athos adopts him and spirits him off to Nazi-occupied Zakynthos in Greece, where they hide until liberation. His childhood is filled with privation and fear, but is not, he learns later, anywhere near as horrible as the fate of his people in Europe. Memories of hiding in Poland haunt him for most of his life, and he is particularly upset not to know his beautiful and talented sister Bella's fate. He vividly imagines her suffering and being gassed in a camp. From her...