This is a very short autobiographical story about a Jewish friend of the author who managed to escape the Nazis and flee from Budapest to the USA when he was only 17 years old, by himself, with basically no money, no contacts and no knowledge of the English language. And who then went on to become a top-skilled, world-famous heart surgeon.
After a life spent saving other people's lives and working like crazy to exorcise the past something happens during a trip to Venezuela, and suddenly that past starts to emerge and take over. Memories, dreams, feelings and the meaning of life itself are at the center of the conversation that the protagonist of the story and the author have at the end of their fiftieth graduation anniversary.
The author, being at the same time a psychiatrist and one of those American Jews who watched the holocaust from a safe distance, will listen to, be horrified by and give a final interpretation of the story.
A short but very intense book.
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