escape

I am David // by Anne Holm (1963)

This is the story of a boy who escapes a concentration camp and journeys through Europe in search of his long lost mother. As the book says, David is a strange child. He doesn’t understand the ways of living in freedom. He doesn’t know anything except the life of the concentration camp, and only what his friend and protector told him. But he a quick learner.

My favourite scenes are when he meets the family of Maria. It’s an exciting introduction as it involves a rescue from a burning building! And while I like Maria, the best part of this section, to my mind, involves Carlos. David actually meets up with Carlos earlier in the story, and it’s not a pretty meeting. So much so, David actually hates Carlos and compares him to them (i.e. the Soviet guards). David has such a fear of them (and rightly so!), that he cannot see any hope for Carlos. But this is the storyline where David grows the most.

I read this book for school when I was in the seventh grade. I don’t think I really understood it back then. Re-reading this book gave me a greater appreciation for this classic. One thing to note: Because it was written so many years ago (and also, originally, in Danish), the pace is slower than most modern books.