Long Summer Nights

A mystical and transcendent journey of two wanderers, an eleven-year-old boy, and an old man to whom the boy has been entrusted by his father, a Jew, fleeing the ravages of the war, follows the huge success of Adam & Thomas, Appelfeld's award-winning first book for middle-grade readers. Here, the old man is a former Ukranian commander, revered by the soldiers under his command, who has gone blind and chosen the life of a wanderer as his last spiritual adventure. The child, now disguised as a Ukranian non-Jew, learns from the old man how to fend for himself and how to care for others. The unlikely pair wander from village to village, sometimes encountering old friends, sometimes abuse from children and adult villagers wary of thieves and beggars. In the tradition of The Alchemist, the travelers learn from each other and the boy grows stronger and wiser as the old man teaches him the art of survival and, through the stories he shares, the reasons for living. A coming-of-age story unlike any other, and an extraordinary tale of friendship, loss, and survival. Like every Aharon Appelfeld book, Long Summer Nights carries its magic not only in the words but also in the silences between them.