Lindsay Hawdon

This heartbreaking and tender novel will appeal to readers who loved Sophie's Choice, Schindler's Ark and The Book Thief. Austria, 1944. Jakob, a gypsy boy - half Roma, half Yenish - runs, as he has been told to do. With shoes of sack cloth, still bloodstained with another's blood, a stone clutched in one hand, a small wooden box in the other. He runs blindly, full of fear, empty of hope. For hope lies behind him in a green field with a tree that stands shaped like a Y. He knows how to read the land, the sky. When to seek shelter, when not. He has grown up directing himself with the wind and the shadows. They are familiar to him. It is the loneliness that is not. He has never, until this time, been so alone. " Don't be afraid, Jakob," his father has told him, his voice weak and wavering. "See the colours, my boy," he has whispered. So he does. Rusted ochre from a mossy bough. Steely white from the sap of the youngest tree. On and on, Jakob runs. Spanning from one world war to another, taking us across England, Switzerland and Austria, Jakob's Colours is about the painful legacies passed down from one generation to another, finding hope where there is no hope and colour where there is no colour.

Jakob's Colours

Running for his life wearing bloodstained sackcloth shoes in 1944 Austria, a young Romany boy assesses his multicultural legacy through the stories of his parents in 1920s Switzerland and England.

Jakob's colors

Austria, 1944. Jakob, a gypsy boy--half Roma, half Yenish--runs for his life as he has been told to do. With shoes made of sack cloth--stained with another person's blood--and a stone clutched in one hand, a small wooden box in the other, he runs blindly, full of fear and nearly drained of hope. He knows when to trust a stranger and when to be wary. He knows how to read the land and the sky--when to seek shelter, when not to. He has grown up following the wind and sticking to the shadows. They are familiar to him. It is the loneliness that is new. He has never, until now, been so alone. Weaving back and forth in time and place between WWII Austria, Switzerland, and 1920s England to tell the interlinked stories of Jakob, an 8-year-old gypsy boy, his father Yavy, and his English mother Lor, Jakob's Colors is about the painful legacies passed down from one generation to another, finding hope when there is no hope and color where there is no color.

Jakob's Colors

Jákob, osmiletý cikánský chlapec, ze čtvrtiny Rom a ze čtvrtiny Jeniš, zůstal úplně sám v nacisty okupovaném Rakousku. Prchá lesem, na nohách boty z pytloviny potřísněné cizí krví, v jedné ruce kámen a v druhé dřevěnou truhličku jako jedinou upomínku na dřívější život. Prchá zběsile a zoufale, plný strachu a zbaven všech nadějí.Už se naučil rozpoznat, kdy může cizímu člověku věřit a kdy se musí mít na pozoru. Dovede přečíst znamení, která mu dává příroda; ví, kdy se skrýt a kdy utíkat dál. Umí běžet s větrem i schovávat se ve stínech. To všechno ho naučil táta. Ale teď je táta pryč. I máma a sourozenci. A tak Jákob dál dělá to jediné, co může: utíká a skrývá se, pronásledován strašlivými vzpomínkami.Lindsay Hawdon napsala silný román, jehož děj je rozprostřen do sedmnácti let a tří zemí: Anglie, Rakouska a Švýcarska. Na pozadí tragického příběhu malého Jákoba sledujeme osudy tří generací z naprosto rozdílných společenských vrstev a prostředí, abychom se společně s naším osmiletým hrdinou pokusili nalézt naději tam, kde už žádná naděje nezbyla.

Lindsay Hawdon

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