A Signal Through the Flames

In April 1941 the Nazis invade Zagreb, Croatia. Alex, a young teenager, has a crush on his mousey teacher, Rachel, 27. Alex and Rachel are both Jews, and though Alex escapes into the surrounding mountains, Rachel, who is also a Communist, is tortured and murdered. Alex spends the war fighting with Tito's partisans, moves to Italy after the war, and eventually to Canada and the U.S. In California he marries a much younger Chicana woman, Maria, but can never forget Rachel. This longish narrative in a highly poetic style relates Alex's story as he tells it to a much younger friend.