Lovers & Fugitives

The perilous odyssey undertaken by some European Jews during World War II to avoid the doom awaiting them in concentration camps is depicted in this vivid, haunting novel. Saskia Stark and her mother, Helga, have already fled from Germany to Holland, where Saskia encounters David Held, a widowed German Jew who had been sentenced to Dachau. Although he was miraculously freed, David knows that Nazi authorities plan to identify and annihilate all Jews within their domain. Faced with this realization, David and Saskia hastily marry to formalize their love. When Saskia and her mother are scheduled for deportation, theyalong with David and Helga's companion Paulset out for France's free zone. Sympathetic acquaintances hide them along the way, but other developments hamper the travelers, and Saskia fears for daring, altruistic David while she simultaneously copes with her advancing pregnancy. Mautner, who herself experienced the wartime dislocation she describes here, wrote Out of a Season. (March)