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The Book of Aron
The Book of Aron: A novel | Jim Shepard
18 posts | 26 read | 21 to read
The acclaimed National Book Award finalistone of the United States finest writers, according to Joshua Ferris, full of wit, humanity, and fearless curiositynow gives us a novel that will join the short list of classics about children caught up in the Holocaust. Aron, the narrator, is an engaging if peculiar and unhappy young boy whose family is driven by the German onslaught from the Polish countryside into Warsaw and slowly battered by deprivation, disease, and persecution. He and a handful of boys and girls risk their lives by scuttling around the ghetto to smuggle and trade contraband through the quarantine walls in hopes of keeping their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters alive, hunted all the while by blackmailers and by Jewish, Polish, and German police, not to mention the Gestapo. When his family is finally stripped away from him, Aron is rescued by Janusz Korczak, a doctor renowned throughout prewar Europe as an advocate of childrens rights who, once the Nazis swept in, was put in charge of the Warsaw orphanage. Treblinka awaits them all, but does Aron manage to escapeas his mentor suspected he couldto spread word about the atrocities? Jim Shepard has masterfully made this childs-eye view of the darkest history mesmerizing, sometimes comic despite all odds, truly heartbreaking, and even inspiring. Anyone who hears Arons voice will remember it forever.From the Hardcover edition.
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Argon
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Pickpick

Fitting that today is Holocaust Memorial Day.
This book tells the story of a Jewish boy living in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. It‘s an incredibly powerful book. When I finished it, I just cried. it‘s so horrifying and heartbreaking to read and imagine what so many people went through, and to read it from the viewpoint of a child. This is one of those books that can be hard to read, but is really worth reading.
10/10

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azulaco
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Pickpick

I finished this a few weeks ago, and I needed to sit with it awhile. I didn‘t realize until the end that I was reading a fictionalized account of a true story. Like the ending wasn‘t bad enough...and then reading that it actually happened...well, I hugged my boys a little closer the night I finished this book. It was a heartbreaking story, and having the irrepressible Aron be the narrator was a stroke of genius that gave the story life and depth.

azulaco This afterword is a gut punch, knowing that the doctor tried so hard to reassure his orphans about their transport. It took my breath away: “Nothing is definitively known about the last hours of Janusz Korczak and his staff members and his children [...] but most likely they were deported to Treblinka on the afternoon of August 5, 1942...[A]t the time Treblinka was in such a state of overtaxed chaos... 4y
azulaco ...that mountains of corpses confronted the new arrivals, and therefore maintaining any kind of deception on the way to the gas chambers was nearly impossible.” 4y
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azulaco
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This first line captured my heart. I have a son just like this 😆🥰

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Dempsey
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Pickpick

This was an excellent read. Heartbreaking, but excellent. Personally, I would like to see this book in high school curriculums. #litsyatoz @BookishMarginalia

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reikof
Book of Aron | Jim Shepard
Pickpick

Realistic, gut wrenching and thought provoking.

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Abailliekaras
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The story of children in a Warsaw ghetto in the Holocaust. Aron falls in with a gang, but Shepard shows he is still an innocent, troubled child: his relationship with his mother is beautifully described. A sense of sadness & foreboding pervades the book. There is humour early on in the kids' teasing & banter but this fades, as they move into survival mode & watch friends & family die. Dr Korczac is a hero to his orphans. An unflinching portrait.😭

Reggie This is why if I see Holocaust attached to the description I'm out. I went through a period in high school in the 90's where everything I read or watched was about the Holocaust because maybe those survivors were just getting their stories out but they were never a comedy or a romance ya know, lol. Just horrible and heartbreaking what people are capable of. 7y
Abailliekaras @Reggie yep I couldn't do two in a row. However this is a fresh perspective and a beautiful remembrance of people we should not forget. Brings a slice of that time to life. But yes so tough! 7y
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Abailliekaras
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We're about to go the farmer's market but I need a coffee first. We're dog-sitting Harry the Havanese this weekend. 🐶🐾☕️

Tamra What a cutie! 7y
Abailliekaras @Tamra he is! Despite waking us up at 5am 😬😉 7y
30 likes2 comments
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Abailliekaras
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I think this is a #neveragain read, but it's still on my TBR. I met Jim Shepard at Adelaide Writers' Week last year and he was delightful, & very funny, so I'm looking forward to the book in spite of the dark subject matter. #fallintobooks day 11

LeahBergen This is waiting on my shelf, too! 7y
Abailliekaras @LeahBergen I don't why I haven't read it yet, it sounds really good! I'm moving it up in my TBR. 😊 7y
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fernanda1
O Livro de Aron | Jim Shepard
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Mehso-so

"- A criança tem direito ao respeito , disse ele. - A criança tem o direito de se desenvolver. A criança tem o direito de ser. A criança tem o direito de sofrer. A criança tem o direito de aprender. A criança tem o direito de errar."

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Chiperskee
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I just heard about this book and author on the Men in Blazers podcast. And Jim Shepard's day job is right down the road from me. I had to check it out

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cristiana_de_sousa
Book of Aron | Jim Shepard
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Mehso-so

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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A_Biblioteca_da_Joao
Book of Aron | Jim Shepard
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Mehso-so

⭐⭐⭐ Um livro narrado pela voz de uma criança, mas que não teve o impacto que deveria ter tido em mim...

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Dempsey
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I'm a day late, but I'm going to get around to reading this. #booksandicecream #riotgrams #day8 #daylate

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Reagan
Pickpick

Well, it's not uplifting. Beautifully written, as I said before, I find it challenging to read books written from a child's perspective. This was so worth it. I was not very familiar with the story this is based on, and so as I neared the end, I was hoping for the best outcome. I would highly recommend this, although don't read it in the same brief timespan as you read The Boy In The Striped Pajamas.

Bookish_B This is on my TBR list 👍🏼 8y
Reagan It was really good. 8y
21 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Reagan

In the past I have struggled with reading books from a child's perspective, although it usually works out in the end (I'm talking about you The Bear!) and this has been no different. A bit of a rough start getting used to his voice, but now I'm about 1/3 of the way through and it is getting a little emotional. I'm wishing I had more bus ride reading time!

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BillKathyWms
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Pickpick

Exquisite historical fiction narrated by an 8 year old Polish Jewish boy confined to the Warsaw ghetto. Painstaking research based partially on a Jewish Doctor who ran an orphanage inside the ghetto. Gritty and real! 👍🏼📚

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bookloversnevergotobedalone
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I'm changing my review of this book. After thinking about it it was a really realistic depiction of a child in the holocaust.

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bookloversnevergotobedalone
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What I'm reading today. Another for the TOB

Victoria That's a good one. 9y
2 likes1 comment