The Book of Aron
As seen:
By Jim Shepard
avg rating
2 reviews
Warsaw, Poland, 1939.
My mother and father named me Aron, but my father said they should have named me What Have You Done or What Were You Thinking.
Aron is a nine-year-old Polish Jew, and a troublemaker. As the walls go up around the ghetto in Warsaw, as the lice and typhus rage, food is stolen and even Jewish police betray their people, Aron smuggles from the other side to survive.
In a place where no one thinks of anyone but himself, the only exception is Doctor Korczak; trying to keep a hundred and fifty orphans from starving.
They call the Doctor a hero. Aron is not a hero. He is not special or selfless or spirited. He is ordinary.
He is willing to do what the Doctor will not.
TweetReviews
An unglorified way of viewing the Holocaust through the eyes of a child as we watched him develop the skills to survive as conditions worsened in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a quick read and the simple language and unemotional portrayal belied the depth of the book and the strong feelings it left us with. Very well researched and lots to discuss. A good book club choice and a good reminder of what mankind can do to each other.
All of the group members liked this book. We felt it showed insight into a part of European history we knew little about. Because it was told from the slightly naïve view point of a child it made it all the more harrowing to read.
