Tzili
Subtitle: The Story of a Life (Appelfeld, Aharon)
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: April 9, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 186
ISBN-13: 9780802134554
Subjects: Modern fiction; Literary; Appelfeld, Aron - Prose & Criticism; Fiction - General; Fiction; General; Jewish; Fiction / Historical; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
First sentence: Perhaps it would be better to leave the story of Tzili Kraus's life untold.
Description: In this moving and tender tale of a young girl living in the shadow of the Holocaust, Aharon Appelfeld weaves an individual's unique story. Tzili was the youngest, least favored member of a large Jewish family. Her schooling was a failure; all she retained from her religious instruction was one prayer. Simple and meek, she was more at home with the animals in the fields than with her own kin.

So when her family fled Hitler's encroaching armies, it was Tzili who stayed behind, and it was Tzili who lived alone in the forest, sought refuge with the peasants, found love, and survived. Aharon Appelfeld imbues her story with a harrowing beauty that is emblematic of an entire people's fate.