Because the audio link is a bit long, I’m going to try and keep this introduction short-ish in length.  A few days ago, I got an e-mail from a reader of  The Character.  As part of her emotional e-mail, she thanked me for Ash.  The e-mail has stayed with me over the last week or so and made me want to revisit the most beloved character I’ve ever written.  Instead of returning to “The Character,” though, I bought out this book, mainly because there were a few scenes with Ash in this one that really make me quite adore him.

Ash is the story of an unnamed Jewish girl who finds herself in Auschwitz, alone, where the landscape is colorless and the background noise is the sound of dogs barking. In order to survive, she has to rely on inner strength, imagination and a friend named Ash.

As a full disclosure, this reading is from the last chapter of the book, and I almost didn’t post it. But, after re-reading it twice, it made me cry and it made me think about colors.  It wasn’t until I had my oldest daughter that I really began to see how beautiful colors really are.  I remember sitting in the car, staring at trees and thinking about how green they were.  There were days when I’d go outside and be utterly amazed at how blue the sky was. I mean, I’d always known these things but it was almost as though I’d been looking at the world through a set of clouded lenses and, suddenly, the earth was clear and bright again.  After everything that this character goes through, after losing her family and seeing torture and death on a daily basis, after living in a state of heightened, intense, prolonged fear, the stories Ash tells her become the light at the end of the tunnel. They keep her from running into the fence, the keep her from losing her integrity and her compassion and they comfort her.

The Holocaust is a deeply moving time period for me.  It’s a period I’ve spent half my life researching and learning about and I’m constantly amazed at the stories of courage and strength to be found within the tapestry of evil.  It reminds me that there is always hope to be found.

Enjoy.  Because I have to do my best to protect my writing, please remember that, while you may link to this post all you wish, please do not copy or steal my work.  It is an essential part of my heartbeat.  As writings, all recordings on this site are expressly copyrighted and may not be used without my permission.