The article addresses the role of metaphor in the memory. Anne Michaelss fiercely beautiful debut novel tells the interlocking stories of three men of different generations whose lives are transformed by the. Filled with mysterious symmetries and rendered in heart-stopping prose, Fugitive Pieces is a triumphant work, a book that should not so much be read as it should be surrendered to. Fugitive pieces by Anne Michaels, with a specific focus on the metaphorical style of this novel. With this electrifying image, Anne Michaels ushers us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, and redemption.Īs Michaels follows Jakob across two continents, she lets us witness his transformation from a half-wild casualty of the Holocaust to an artist who extracts meaning from its abyss. And although by all rights he should have shared the fate of the other Jews in his village, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist, who does not recognize the boy as human until he begins to cry. In 1940 a boy bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from the soldiers who murdered his family. I enjoyed the lyrical prose, the spirituality and the story wound around Athos and Jakob. The first part of the book held me completely. Winner of the Lannan Literary Fiction Award Having just completed Fugitive Pieces I am having difficulty writing this review.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year In Fugitive Pieces, a historical novel published in 1996, Canadian poet Anne Michaels explores the aftermath of war on memory, and how war shapes the psyche.

Fugitive pieces book review