Trillium Testimonial: Kathy Kacer

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Ontario's illustrious Trillium Book Award/Prix Trillium. To celebrate this silver milestone, Open Book has asked members of the literary community to tell us what they love about their favourite award-winning Trillium title. If you're looking for a recommended read (or re-read), follow these Trillium Testimonials on Open Book: Ontario from now until the winners of the 2012 award competition are announced. Today, children's author Kathy Kacer tells us why she's chosen Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces (McClelland & Stewart), winner of the Trillium Book Award for titles published in 1996.

Open Book:

What do you love about this book and when did you first read it?

Kathy Kacer:

I first read Fugitive Pieces in 1996. Those were in the days when I was still dreaming of being published. And I was drawn to anything related to the Holocaust since the writing that I was doing was also of that time period.

I still remember that I couldn’t sleep for days after I had devoured this novel. First there was the story — a young boy, Jakob, witnesses the murder of his parents at the hands of the Nazis and then is smuggled out of Poland by Athos, a Greek archeologist. The journey that Jakob and Athos go through is poignant and painful and loving. But more than the story was the way in which the author, Anne Michaels, was able to convey it. Known for her poetry, in this story she simply carried me away with her depiction of gut-wrenching events and unsettling human experiences. I loved every word and still do.

Kathy Kacer is a children’s author whose focus is historical fiction and true stories about the Holocaust. Her many books include The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, Clara’s War, The Underground Reporters, Our Canadian Girl Series, Hiding Edith, The Diary of Laura’s Twin, Whispers from the Ghettos, Whispers from the Camps, Whispers in Hiding and her adult book, Restitution. Her newest book for young readers is To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis (Second Story Press, 2011.)

She is winner of the Silver Birch, Red Maple and Jewish Book Awards (in Canada and the U.S.), as well as the Yad Vashem Award for Jewish Holocaust Literature in Israel. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages and sold across the world.

Visit her at her website, kathykacer.com.

You could be reading your top Trillium titles on a new Kobo eReader! Click here for details on our Trillium 25th Anniversary Contest.