A Boy in Winter

 

By Rachel Seiffert

Vintage International Publishers

Published in 2018; copyright 2017

238 pages

ISBN: 978-0-8041-6880-9

 Summary by Uliana Pasicznyk

This poignant novel begins in Nazi-occupied Ukraine in November 1941. The German Wehrmacht has pushed the Soviet Red Army across much of western Ukraine and is advancing toward Kyiv.  Following the Wehrmacht, the German SS has arrived in the town where thirteen-year-old Yankel and his family live. Yasia, a seventeen-year-old Ukrainian girl, is in the town too, having arrived there from her family’s farm in the surrounding countryside. Stationed nearby is the German engineer Otto Pohl, whose task is to build a solid road for the Germans’ use. Their lives soon intertwine in a remarkable and memorable story.

In the town, people fear the SS’s presence and what its occupation means. Yankel’s parents and small sister are already in the crowd of people gathered in the brickworks factory in the centre of town, having been commanded to appear there along with all other Jews. But independent-minded Yankel has no intention of heading there. His little brother, Momik, is with him, and he must find some other place for the two of them to go.

Ostensibly Yasia has come to town to sell fruit, but her real aim is to see Mykola, her beloved, who abandoned the retreating Red Army and has begun policing for the Germans. Venturing out at dusk to seek him out, Yasia chances upon the two brothers keeping to the shadows along a dark side street. What are they doing out here, she wonders fretfully, especially now, when the whole village is strange and times are troubled? When the boys follow her, she realizes they have no place to go. Apprehensive and reluctant though she is, Yasia hides them in the loft of her cousin’s barn.

Outside the town, Otto continues to oversee his workers and report on the construction of the road that is his responsibility. But he is uneasy, and he avoids dealing with the SS and German military in the area. Why are they still here, he wonders irritably, when the victorious Wehrmacht has marched on? Why is he obliged to make local men labour on the road for such long stretches of time without adequate food or rest, resulting in less than good work? And then there was that scene he witnessed, the way the SS had treated the town’s Jewish schoolmaster and his mother – it appalled Otto. He has gradually begun to realize what the goals of the Nazis he is working for are, and he is increasingly troubled by them. The only person with whom he can share all this is his wife back in Germany, but he knows his letters to her are read by censors and so anything he writes could endanger them both.

Readers of the novel encounter others who are part of what is happening: Yankel’s worried parents Ephraim and Miryam with small Rosa; the battered schoolmaster and his bewildered elderly mother; rash Mykola and his unyielding parents; Otto’s calculating SS supervisor, Arnold; Yasia’s fearful cousin Osip, and his suspicious neighbours; her reticent uncle, and members of his community far out in the marshlands; the partisans who also roam there. Always at the centre of the story, though, are Yasia and the two brothers she has unwillingly become responsible for. As Yasia and Yankel work through their distrust of each other, dangerous incidents and horrific events occur, and they must depend on each other to survive. At one point, Otto comes across them and their lives are literally in his hands; the actions he takes then alter his life, as well as theirs.

Our Rozmova group had much to say about A Boy in Winter. Several members noted events and characters in the book that resembled wartime experiences they had heard about in their own families. The group was appreciative of the clear writing style, fluid yet precise narrative, and use of concise dialogue that characterize the book, agreeing that together they allowed readers to  “witness” characters, actions, and scenes vividly. One example was when restless Momik must be kept quiet in the barn loft lest a noise reveal their presence; Yankel acts by swiftly and silently fashioning animals from bits of straw and twigs for the little boy to play with, as Yasia, still apprehensive but now also appreciative of Yankel’s quick thinking and ingenuity, looks on. Another element focused on was that the main characters spoke three different languages, at times conveyed by italicized words in those languages, so communicating effectively with one another was a complexity evident from the start.

The author, Rachel Seiffert, is a prize-winning writer whose first book, The Dark Room, was short-listed for the Booker Prize. In interviews she has spoken about elements in her personal history – for instance, her German family background – that have affected her choice of topics and characters to portray. One theme strongly present in her work is how the individual acts within the context of history, that is, in critical historical events as they are happening around him or her. Rozmova members agreed that in dealing with her characters and their actions, Seiffert writes in a way that allows her readers to visualize them clearly and in depth. In sum, her skill as a writer allowed her readers to make their own judgments about these characters and actions, and that was something Rozmova readers valued highly in this book.