Thursday, December 29, 2011

Fugitive Pieces

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A New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Lannan Literary Fiction AwardWinner of the Guardian Fiction AwardIn 1940 a boy bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from the soldiers who murdered his family. His name is Jakob Beer. He is only seven years old. And although by all rights he should have shared the fate of the other Jews in his village, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist, who does not recognize the boy as human until he begins to cry. With this electrifying image, Anne Michaels ushers us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, and redemption.As Michaels follows Jakob across two continents, she lets us witness his transformation from a half-wild casualty o! f the Holocaust to an artist who extracts meaning from its abyss. Filled with mysterious symmetries and rendered in heart-stopping prose, Fugitive Pieces is a triumphant work, a book that should not so much be read as it should be surrendered to.Anne Michaels, an accomplished poet, has already published two collections of poetry in her native Canada. She turns her hand to fiction in an impressive debut novel, Fugitive Pieces. This is the story of Jakob Beer, a Polish Jew, translator, and poet who, as a child, witnessed his family's slaughter at the hands of the Nazis. Beer himself was found and smuggled out of Poland by Athos Roussos, a Greek archaeologist who carried him back to Greece and kept him there in precarious safety. After the war they emigrated together to Canada. Jakob's story is told through diaries discovered by Ben, a young man whose parents are Holocaust survivors and who is a vessel for their memories just as Jakob is the bear! er of his own.

Fugitive Pieces is a book about me! mory and forgetting. How is it possible to love the living when our hearts are still with the dead? What is the difference between what historical fact tells us and what we remember? More than that, the novel is a meditation on the power of language to free our souls and allow us to find our own destinies.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Fugitive Pieces Study Guide consists of approx. 67 pages of summaries and analysis on Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.

This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for! Discussion.

Fugitive Pieces Study Guide consists of approx. 67 pages of summaries and analysis on Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.

This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

A New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Lannan Literary Fiction AwardWinner of the Guardian Fiction AwardIn 1940 a boy bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from the soldiers who murdered his family. His name is Jakob Beer. He is only seven years old. And although by all rights he should have shared the fate of the other Jews in his village, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist, who does not recognize the boy as human until he begins to cry. With this electrifying image, Anne Michaels ushers us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, an! d redemption.As Michaels follows Jakob across two continents, ! she lets us witness his transformation from a half-wild casualty of the Holocaust to an artist who extracts meaning from its abyss. Filled with mysterious symmetries and rendered in heart-stopping prose, Fugitive Pieces is a triumphant work, a book that should not so much be read as it should be surrendered to.


From the Trade Paperback edition.Anne Michaels, an accomplished poet, has already published two collections of poetry in her native Canada. She turns her hand to fiction in an impressive debut novel, Fugitive Pieces. This is the story of Jakob Beer, a Polish Jew, translator, and poet who, as a child, witnessed his family's slaughter at the hands of the Nazis. Beer himself was found and smuggled out of Poland by Athos Roussos, a Greek archaeologist who carried him back to Greece and kept him there in precarious safety. After the war they emigrated together to Canada. Jakob's story is told through diaries discovered by Ben, a! young man whose parents are Holocaust survivors and who is a vessel for their memories just as Jakob is the bearer of his own.

Fugitive Pieces is a book about memory and forgetting. How is it possible to love the living when our hearts are still with the dead? What is the difference between what historical fact tells us and what we remember? More than that, the novel is a meditation on the power of language to free our souls and allow us to find our own destinies.A New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Lannan Literary Fiction AwardWinner of the Guardian Fiction AwardIn 1940 a boy bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from the soldiers who murdered his family. His name is Jakob Beer. He is only seven years old. And although by all rights he should have shared the fate of the other Jews in his village, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist, who does not recognize ! the boy as human until he begins to cry. With this electrifyin! g image, Anne Michaels ushers us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, and redemption.As Michaels follows Jakob across two continents, she lets us witness his transformation from a half-wild casualty of the Holocaust to an artist who extracts meaning from its abyss. Filled with mysterious symmetries and rendered in heart-stopping prose, Fugitive Pieces is a triumphant work, a book that should not so much be read as it should be surrendered to.


From the Trade Paperback edition.Fugitive Pieces is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Baron Byron is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Baron Byron then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.Adapted from Anne Michael's acclaimed prose-poem novel, FUGITIVE PIECES is a harrowing and haunting tale of Holocaust survival and personal awakening. The ! film opens in Poland, as young Jakob Berr (Robbie Kay) is hidden away just before German soldiers storm into his Jewish family's home. After watching his parents murdered and his sister dragged away to an uncertain fate, Jakob flees and hides in the woods. He is discovered by a kindly Greek archaeologist, Athos (Rade Sherbedgia), who smuggles the sickly Jakob back to his own island home and hides him for the rest of the war. Years later, having moved to Canada, the grownup Jakob (Stephen Dillane) has become a writer struggling to articulate his childhood horrors, haunted by the mystery of his sister's fate. But after his troubled emotions lead to the breakup of his marriage to the free-spirited Alex (Rosamund Pike), Jakob must exorcise the ghosts of his past if he is to close a traumatic chapter of his life and find beauty in the present. Director Jeremy Podeswa (THE FIVE SENSES) ably shifts between the different stages of Jakob's life, showing how grief can continue to inf! luence one's actions--or inaction--in the years that follow a ! tragedy. Handsomely shot and thoughtfully acted, FUGITIVE PIECES is a touching testimony to the power of remembrance and redemption

Dedication

  • Dedication is a modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex children s book author named Henry is forced to team up with a beautiful illustrator after his best friend and creative collaborator passes away. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:&n
Dedication is a modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex children’s book author named Henry is forced to team up with a beautiful illustrator after his best friend and creative collaborator passes away. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love.At first glance, Justin Theroux's directorial debut looks like a romantic comedy, but it's really a character study. And misanthropic childr! en's book author Henry (Billy Crudup, who worked with Theroux in Broadway's Three Sisters) is one heck of a character. For inspiration, he turns to the Japanese cult classic Gamera. When feeling stressed, he piles books on his prone chest. Henry has worked with illustrator Rudy (Tom Wilkinson, Crudup's Stage Beauty co-star) for 15 years when the unthinkable happens. Contractually obligated to produce another Marty the Beaver adventure, his agent (Bob Balaban) partners him with doctoral-candidate-turned-artist Lucy (Mandy Moore). While Henry mourns his only friend, Lucy nurses a broken heart--her mother/landlord (Dianne Wiest) has just evicted her and her boyfriend/thesis advisor (Martin Freeman) has just dumped her. It's discomfort at first sight, but feelings soften as these wounded personalities learn to work--and heal--together. You can see the conclusion coming from a mile away, and Moore's character is underwritten (David Bromberg penned the! script), but Crudup makes what could be an indie film cliché! --the Ne w York neurotic--almost seem fresh. As for Theroux, a busy actor best known for his movies with David Lynch, like Mulholland Drive, the first-timer has a sharp eye for the arresting image and a discriminating ear for the evocative tune--the soundtrack includes music by alternative rock favorites Deerhoof, Cat Power, and Joanna Newsom. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

17 Again

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A small-town hero and an accomplished sailor who has it all: the adoration of his mother and younger brother and a stanford scholarship. His bright future is cut short when tragedy strikes and takes his dreams with it. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 11/09/2010 Starring: Zac Efron Ray Liotta Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Burr SteersTeen heartthrob Zac Efron (High School Musical, 17 Again) makes an appealing, and wise, choice as the star of Charlie St. Cloud. Efron is able to flex his dramatic acting abilities and can stretch, ever so slightly, into a more adult role, without alienating or being off-putting to his dedicated young fans. And Efron shows signs of being a terrific young actor, with nuanced skills that have perhaps been overlooked until now! , because of his appealing pinup-boy looks. Efron is delicious eye candy in Charlie St. Cloud, no question (though he has to share some of that role with the beautiful British Columbia coastline where the film is set), but he also carries the entire film, which manages to be family drama, tragedy, adventure, and budding love story--with a good dose of "live your life to the fullest" advice built in. Efron plays the title character, a gifted student and sailor who gets a full scholarship to Stanford. But right after graduation, Charlie is involved in a life-changing tragedy--one that shatters his family and his own sense of his place in the world. Efron's Charlie is a lost young man, dedicated to the aftereffects of the tragic accident, and turns from promising young upstart to pitiable recluse--so reclusive that he lives and works at the local graveyard. The entire cast is wonderful, and they put their hearts into the sad, yet ultimately uplifting story. Young Charli! e Tahan is winsome as Charlie's younger brother, Sam. Kim Basi! nger, to o long away from the big screen, is grounded and believable as the boys' hard-working single mom. Ray Liotta plays a memorable cameo as a paramedic who helps save Charlie after the accident. And Amanda Crew is spunky and adorable as the independent young sailor with a secret crush on Charlie--the "old" Charlie, who was still interested in embracing life--and with possibly the only lifeline that Charlie might actually grab. The chemistry between Efron and Crew is sparkly, and Efron fans will enjoy seeing their idol in more mature love scenes. But not too mature--the raciest of the romance scenes involves Efron (not Crew) taking off his shirt--to fans' delight. If Charlie St. Cloud isn't too original in its plotting, nor especially crisp in its direction, it doesn't matter--Efron's screen appeal is plenty to propel both the story and the action. Efron fans of all ages will enjoy watching the young actor begin the process of growing up--just a bit--onscreen. --A.T. Hu! rleyZac Efron stars as Charlie St. Cloud, a small-town hero and an accomplished sailor who has it all: the adoration of his mother and younger brother, and a Stanford scholarship. His bright future is cut short when tragedy strikes, taking his dreams with it. Now Charlie is torn between honoring a promise he made years ago and pursuing his newfound love with a former high-school classmate. Based on the acclaimed bestseller, comes a story of hope, second chances and the transformative power of love, also starring Ray Liotta and Academy Award® winner Kim Basinger.Teen heartthrob Zac Efron (High School Musical, 17 Again) makes an appealing, and wise, choice as the star of Charlie St. Cloud. Efron is able to flex his dramatic acting abilities and can stretch, ever so slightly, into a more adult role, without alienating or being off-putting to his dedicated young fans. And Efron shows signs of being a terrific young actor, with nuanced skills ! that have perhaps been overlooked until now, because of his ap! pealing pinup-boy looks. Efron is delicious eye candy in Charlie St. Cloud, no question (though he has to share some of that role with the beautiful British Columbia coastline where the film is set), but he also carries the entire film, which manages to be family drama, tragedy, adventure, and budding love story--with a good dose of "live your life to the fullest" advice built in. Efron plays the title character, a gifted student and sailor who gets a full scholarship to Stanford. But right after graduation, Charlie is involved in a life-changing tragedy--one that shatters his family and his own sense of his place in the world. Efron's Charlie is a lost young man, dedicated to the aftereffects of the tragic accident, and turns from promising young upstart to pitiable recluse--so reclusive that he lives and works at the local graveyard. The entire cast is wonderful, and they put their hearts into the sad, yet ultimately uplifting story. Young Charlie Tahan is winsome as Charli! e's younger brother, Sam. Kim Basinger, too long away from the big screen, is grounded and believable as the boys' hard-working single mom. Ray Liotta plays a memorable cameo as a paramedic who helps save Charlie after the accident. And Amanda Crew is spunky and adorable as the independent young sailor with a secret crush on Charlie--the "old" Charlie, who was still interested in embracing life--and with possibly the only lifeline that Charlie might actually grab. The chemistry between Efron and Crew is sparkly, and Efron fans will enjoy seeing their idol in more mature love scenes. But not too mature--the raciest of the romance scenes involves Efron (not Crew) taking off his shirt--to fans' delight. If Charlie St. Cloud isn't too original in its plotting, nor especially crisp in its direction, it doesn't matter--Efron's screen appeal is plenty to propel both the story and the action. Efron fans of all ages will enjoy watching the young actor begin the process of gro! wing up--just a bit--onscreen. --A.T. HurleyIn a snug N! ew Engla nd fishing village, Charlie St. Cloud tends the lawns and monuments of an ancient cemetery where his younger brother, Sam, is buried. After surviving the car accident that claimed his brother's life, Charlie is graced with an extraordinary gift: He can see, talk to, and even play catch with Sam's spirit. Into this magical world comes Tess Carroll, a captivating woman training for a solo sailing trip around the globe. Fate steers her boat into a treacherous storm that propels her into Charlie's life. Their beautiful and uncommon connection leads to a race against time and a choice between death and life, between the past and the future, between holding on and letting go â€" and the discovery that miracles can happen if we simply open our hearts.Questions for Ben Sherwood About Charlie St. Cloud

Q: Did you always imagine your book becoming a movie?
A: In a word...no. I quit a great job at NBC News in New York to write this book. It was a risky career move. I wish I could say the road was easy, but it wasn’t. There were major creative challenges and serious professional setbacks. Indeed, the route from blank page to the finished book might well be described as a near-death publishing experience. Perhaps that’s why I never really imagined this book becoming a movie. Indeed, the very idea of a film adaptation seemed farfetched. As one of my close friends always said: "I’ll believe Charlie St. Cloud is a movie when I’m sitting in the theater and eating popcorn."

Q: How involved were you with the movie and did you write the screenplay?
A: The producers and studio were generous to include me at many stages of the process but I wasn’t involved with the movie or screenpla! y. I was fortunate to visit the production twice, once on loc! ation in a cemetery and another time on a soundstage in Vancouver. Each time, I relished how filmmakers turned some of the book’s tiniest details into movie reality. For instance, Major League Baseball sent three small Red Sox mitts for Sam to use when he played catch with Charlie. I watched an assistant prop master carry a brand-new red mitt around all day, rubbing it constantly to give it a well-worn appearance.

On another occasion, the director showed me the closing shot of the film. Today, words still fail to describe the exhilarating experience of seeing Charlie and Tess literally sailing into the sunset. Seven years earlier, in the quiet of my little writing room, I had imagined these two young people on a boat aimed at the open ocean. Suddenly, they were on the screen, leaning into each other with wind tousling their hair and sails, steering a Gryphon Solo, one of the world’s fastest fifty-foot sailboats, filmed by a came! ra mounted on a helicopter hovering above.

Q: How does it feel to see your book turned into a movie?
A: Quite simply, I’m filled with gratitude. To create the movie version of Charlie St. Cloud, it took 28 actors, 34 stunt people, and some 250 crew. When I visited the set in Vancouver, I tried my best to thank every single one, including the wrangler responsible for a noisy flock of geese, the messy bane of Charlie’s existence.

When I called my wife in Los Angeles, she asked, "How does it feel?" I thought for a moment. Then I answered: "I want to hug every person I meet."

Q: Did you imagine Zac Efron as Charlie St. Cloud?
A: In candor, I never imagined Zac Efron in the role of Charlie. Wrecked by loss and grief, Charlie was a character who had wasted many years of his precious life. I always imagined Charlie as much older and much sadder. Thank goodness I’m not ! a movie producer.

I salute the studio and produce! rs for r ealizing that Efron was a perfect choice. Young, dynamic, and charismatic, he embodies the promise of Charlie St. Cloud without the burden and loss. With Efron’s vibrant presence and performance, a sometimes weighty story feels more hopeful and uplifting. As I told Efron when we met in the cemetery in Vancouver, I’m delighted and very thankful that he took the part and filled it with vitality.

Q: How do you feel about the movie being made in Vancouver, Canada instead of Marblehead, Massachussetts, where the novel takes place?
A: I love Marblehead and the people of the town. While researching the book, I traveled to Marblehead several times to walk among the tombstones in Waterside Cemetery, eat breakfast with fishermen at the Driftwood before dawn, drink beers with 'Headers at Maddie's, and compete in my first and only sailboat race.

Vancouver is a country away from the wonderful town where I situated! the story. But a movie adaptation isn't supposed to be a literal translation of a book. It's an interpretation. While I sincerely hoped that the film would be made in Massachusetts--and while the filmmakers tried their best too--I understood the financial decision to pick Canada, where production costs are significantly lower.

Given this choice, the filmmakers did a great job transplanting Charlie and Sam's story to the Pacific Northwest, which looks absolutely spectacular on film.

Q: Your writing seems to focus on questions of life and death. Why?
A: Maybe it's my age or life experience but I've spent a lot of time thinking about how we overcome grief and loss and make the most of our time on earth. These are subjects that have come to occupy my recent work. Over the last few years, I wrote a nonfiction book called The Survivors Club, exploring the secrets and science of the world’s most! effective survivors and thrivers. Interviewing survivors! around the world, I discovered even more proof that love is a powerful and universal survival tool. In my own life, falling in love with my future wife, Karen, helped unlock the stranglehold of my father’s sudden and untimely death 17 years ago. (That’s why I dedicated the book to both of them.) In Charlie's case, discovering Tess helped him break free of the cemetery and the suffocating grip of grief.

Q: You have two young sons. What do you hope they take away from this book some day?
A: When I was leaving the movie set in Vancouver to fly home to Los Angeles, one of the producers generously asked if I wanted a souvenir from the production. I asked for one of Sam’s red mitts from Major League Baseball. Our two young boys can play catch with it. Then some day when they outgrow it, the glove can sit in my office, a reminder of the power of brotherly love and what happens when you take risks, seize life, and set your! imagination free.



Charlie St. Cloud has been given the gift of seeing his deceased brother, but when a new love interest is in trouble he must choose between saving a life or continuing to see his brother everyday. Director: Burr Steers Writers: Craig Pearce (screenplay), Lewis Colick (screenplay), and 1 more credit » Stars: Zac Efron, Kim Basinger and Charlie TahanStudio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 08/11/2009 Run time: 102 minutes Rating: Pg13Zac Efron breaks free of his High School Musical legacy with 17 Again, leading a pack of fine comic actors in a body-switching comedy that freshens the genre with good ideas. Efron plays Mike, a high-school basketball star who blows a college scholarship in 1989 to marry his sweetheart. Cut to 2009, and late-30s Mike (Matthew Perry) is a sour guy passed over for a promotion and feeling estranged from that wife, Scarlett (Leslie Mann), and teen kids (Michelle Trachtenberg, Sterling Knight). Magical intervention causes Mike to turn 17 once more--albeit in the present--and tackle his failures with a fresh start. As the hot new kid in his children's high school, Mike proves a better father to them as their peer than as a man, while Scarlett sees in him everything that attracted her to her husband two decades before. Writer Jason ! Filardi and director Burr Steers demonstrate an imaginative and supple wit in such half-expected scenes as Mike's confrontations with a school bully and his unsuspecting daughter's flirtations with him. But it's Efron who carries some truly delicate moments and proves to be genuinely sympathetic when emotions get thick and heavy. Thomas Lennon is also entertaining as a wealthy Star Wars nerd who pretends to be Mike's father, but his slightly excessive screen time suggests the filmmakers weren't entirely sure Efron could do what needed to be done. If so, they were mistaken. --Tom Keogh