Like Embers in the Night
In Sandusky, Ohio, in 2004, a woman with dementia moves from days when she can recall nothing from her past life—not her children or grandchildren or the love of her life—to times of deep sensory recollection—a “fleshy taste” on the tongue or the sight of a sky filled with gritty ash. She switches from glimpses of her husband picking flowers in the garden to him lying in a hospital room in Pensacola, Florida. The memories, “like embers,” recall the early days of WWII in Poland, the Soviet occupation, arrest and imprisonment of thousands of Poles in labor camps and gulags, late battles of the war, escape from Poland and asylum in the United States.
Author Goliszek is a former professor of biology at North Carolina A&T State University and author of several books, including two novels inspired by biological research. As one might expect from an academic, Like Embers in the Night is solidly researched, providing details about events and actions during and after the war. It is also highly observant—contrasting slow deaths by starvation and cold inflicted by the Soviets to the summary executions conducted by Nazis, for example. And it is deeply moving, diving beneath events to explore the emotions they instill.
Shifts in chronology are sometimes confusing, and the overall narrative point of view is not consistent from start to finish. The book nonetheless stokes ashes of remembrance from a time that has been lost for many.
