FUGITIVE PIECES

Marinker's voice is gentle, his delivery precise and sensuous. He makes you aware of the weight of each word, aware that the author--a Canadian poet--has made deliberate selections. Her first novel is very much about language and about memory, its ability to sear, to heal, but most of all, to transform. The story concerns a Polish-Jewish child, Jakob Beer, who witnesses the murder of his family at the hands of the Nazis, and his rescue by Athos, a Greek geologist, who secrets the boy to his Greek island. Under Athos's infinitely humane tutelage, Jakob will learn the redemptive power of love. Fugitive Pieces is a difficult, layered novel, which doesn't follow a strict narrative path. That's why Marinker's reading, passionate but measured, is so effective, forever keeping the listener in the moment. M.O. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 98]