HONOR

A remarkable creative nonfiction story of courage and survival that satisfyingly comes together like a jigsaw puzzle.

The book opens near the Carpathian Mountains in 1943 with a vignette from the life of Eliezer “Leizer” Buchwald, a young Jewish teenage boy, as Nazis threaten the family of a farmer who’s suspected of hiding Jews. Next comes a timeline of the history of Ukraine from 1915 to the present, followed by a chapter set in 2013 following then-16-year-old co-author Mariichyn, who was living in post-Soviet Ukraine with her parents and grandmother. She enjoyed stories and dreamed of being a writer. When her father’s stroke and bullying at school sent her into a tailspin, her grandmother gave her a pile of old letters to read. The letters continue Leizer’s narrative, starting with his dramatic escape from the Nazis. Under Soviet rule, students learned little about the Holocaust, and Nataliia wasn’t aware of stories like his. She starts to realize that Leizer is somehow connected to her own family and begins researching—hoping she won’t discover that her beloved relatives collaborated with the Nazis. McClelland, known for collaborating with survivors of conflicts, worked with Mariichyn (now a refugee in Canada) and consulted members of Mariichyn’s and Buchwald’s families. The meticulous storytelling, occasionally supplemented with sections of straightforward historical content, unfurls slowly in mesmerizing detail before a fascinating conclusion. The afterword offers additional context and includes illuminating photos of the book’s subjects and Leizer’s correspondence.

Powerful, heroic, and inspiring.