In Madrid this Thursday, a new novel unveils the Holocaust through a child’s eyes
Writer manual fresno presents a historical novel that unfolds against the backdrop of the Holocaust, told from the perspective of a young boy in Lodz. Edited by Adarve, this work confronts the memory of catastrophe head-on, following the boy as he witnesses a world collapsing around him and learns to keep memory alive. The central figure, Oscar Stein, anchors a narrative about memory, loss, and the stubborn insistence that the past not be forgotten.
Jerusalem, year 70 AD. The story opens with a distant echo of ruin as Titus’ legions leave Solomon’s Temple in ashes, sparking a diaspora that spans centuries. Fast forward two thousand years, and the present thread follows two Jewish students at Stanford who investigate their grandparents, Oskar and Karl. Both aim to rebuild their lives after the brutal chapters of Nazi captivity and the murder of cherished family members. With Esther’s testimony as a guiding thread, Oskar becomes a guardian of his parents’ and brother Samuel’s memory, making the past a living presence in the present.
The narrative traces a journey through pivotal epochs: the night of Kristallnacht in Munich in 1938, the invasion of Poland, life inside the Lodz and Warsaw ghettos, the controversial roles of the Jewish Police and the Judenräte, and the Dachau concentration camp era in Bavaria. It also follows the arrival of refugees in Mexico and the efforts of a handful of settlers toward the establishment of the State of Israel. At its heart lies a child’s evolving perception of a world that seems to fracture beyond recovery, a vision that refracts history through innocence and awe, fear and resilience.
The author, associated with Madrid and a background as a state auditor and economist, has previously contributed to several literary projects, including I Have Something To Tell You (2018), A Ruined House (2020), and What To Do When You Let Me Go (2022). In collaboration with publishers such as FIDE and Almuzara, the author has worked with other notable writers and figures in contemporary Spanish letters. The novel Lodz Calligraphy, which earned second prize at the 2021 BerjArte Competition, takes readers into the life of young Oskar as he traverses the ghettos of Germany and Poland during World War II. A second work is already in progress, described as a tale of love, jealousy, and intrigue set against the Green March in the Spanish Sahara in 1975, just days before Franco’s death.
The presentation of this novel is scheduled for 19:30 at the NH Collection Eurobuilding hotel in Madrid. The event will feature attendees such as Patricia Weisz Friedman, president of the Violeta Friedman Foundation, along with her assistant and a distinguished academic and jurist. The gathering is expected to attract a wide audience, including writers who have shaped contemporary discourse, illustrating the book’s bridging of memory, history, and narrative craft.