Ariadne

Ariadne is not a novel of events in the usual sense of the word. It starts with an addiction to forgetfulness and continues with the painful recovery of a long-suppressed past. Avner Wolff, now in his middle years, was seven years old when World War II broke out. Separated from the rest of his family, he was forced to roam the streets, running for his life. Later, he wandered through Europe seeking to survive, until he found out that his family were all dead and immigrated to Israel. But this novel is also the story of Dr Jan Fila, a Czech doctor who sends testimony about his relationship with the Wolff family during that time to the Institute for Holocaust Research. And it is there that Na`ama Or, a young researcher at the Institute comes upon the testimony, searches for Avner`s whereabouts in Israel and gives him this skein of “Araidne threads” that he will have to unravel in order to reconnect to himself.

The meeting between these three protagonists, in Hungary, pries open and then closes significant cycles in each of their lives. For Avner, this late encounter with a man he has not seen since he was a boy restores the missing pieces of his family story. For Na’ama, herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors, new doors to understanding open up. And the delicate, unusual relationship that grows between the two gives additional depth to this sensitive novel.