Aharon Appelfeld, Katerina

Katerina

Aharon Appelfeld

Schocken (Knopf), Feb 2006, $13.00

ISBN: 0805211985

Sixty-three years ago then teenager Katerina left her Ukraine village because her father's mountain of a second wife made her uncomfortable with her demands and she feared the changes in her father after her mom died. She traveled to Poland where she obtained work as a housekeeper to different Jewish families. Katerina found her hosts treated her with respect and kindness unlike her own blood; she was horrified with how the non-Jewish Poles mistreat her employers even getting away with murder.

When her son, raised Jewish, is killed, she knifes his murderer. Of course, killing a Jew is not necessarily a crime, but killing the killer is, so Katerina spends the next four decades incarcerated. She is shocked during World War II when her fellow prisoners gleefully applaud the transporting of the Jews to concentration camps. When the war ends, Katerina is freed and returns to her Ukraine family farm knowing no Jews live in Europe except those from her memories occupying a major place in her heart and soul as she writes her life's lament while closing in on her eightieth birthday.

KATERINA is a terrific insightful look at a woman who believes one must never forget those you love martyred in your soul by a world filled with morally always right killers. The sad Katerina knows firsthand that intolerance and prejudice in any form murders even the innocent. Aharon Appelfeld provides a strong, poignant reflection on life and death.

Harriet Klausner