THE BOOK OF DIRT

Bram Presser brilliantly imagines the fate of Jakub Rand, who is deported to Theresienstadt to sort through the thousands of Jewish texts that have been confiscated from across occupied Europe for use in the Nazis' bizarre Museum of the Extinct Race. It is also the story of how teenaged Dasa miraculously survives the same camp.

But Jakub and Dasa never spoke of their experiences. The family built myths around them: he was a teacher in the camps, keeping the children busy until it was their turn to be killed; she was uneducated but capable of lifting the railway sleepers used to build the tracks that brought her fellow Jews to their deaths. When they died only a month apart, their stories went with them.

Then came the cracks. Everything the family thought they knew was wrong.

THE BOOK OF DIRT uses fiction to explore family myths. It is a love story, a riveting survivors' tale, and a grandson's quest to learn about his grandparents' extraordinary lives