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Summary

"... I was inspired to write a novel about my family's escape from Hungary when I was not yet five. I had vivid and traumatic memories of seeing Hungarian soldiers hanging from lampposts ... and of running by night across a minefield to freedom in Austria. In my novel, I doubled the age of the two brothers so that they could make more sense of the world ..., more sense of displacement, of leaving a life behind, and then something magical happened. ... the book took a surprising turn, one I hadn't anticipated, it surprised me most. [Writing this book] was a transcendental experience." The author interviewed in "The Book Report" of 'The Globe & Mail' newspaper of December 13, 2014.