The Afterlife of Stars

Joseph Kertes tells the reader that this novel is based on his childhood memories.
He remembers at the age of four coming upon a scene of counterrevolutionary carnage at Budapest’s Oktogon Square, just hours before his own family was fleeing Hungary. Hungarian soldiers hanging from lampposts.  All these years later he still remembers it as clear as it was then, and he relays the memory through his main character, Robert.   "The soldier who captures Robert’s attention looks down with “evergreen eyes,” his auburn hair “parted and brilliantined so that it shone even at this distance.”   

This is the story of Robert, who tells us he 9.8 years old  and Attlia, his older brother at 13.7 years old.  They are two Jewish Hungarian brothers who are leaving Hungary in 1956, heading by boat to Canada, but are stopping in Paris to say good bye to Robert and Atllia's grand-aunt, Hermina, who was an opera singer before the WW II.  Attila is the driving force behind finding out the truth.  He encourages his younger brother to follow him on a quest for truth, running into danger, with a strong need to understand the world and what happened to their cousin Paul Beck.  He has disappeared along with the man he worked for during the war, Raoul Wallenberg, who helped many Jews escape the concentration camps.  Attila and Robert find an old black trunk hidden at Aunt Hermina's house in Paris and they press the adults to tell the truth.   

This is a fascinating story that describes another moment in history that was fraught with danger for Jewish people.  Another story of how families suffered, could not hide the stories from their children and tried to keep their heads above water through violent times. Surviving means staying just one step ahead of history's tragedies.

I will go back and find the first book by Kertes, Gratitude, which tells the beginning of the story.