Status Updates From The Lonely Tree

Amos Amrani had spent a great deal of time thinking about Tonia Shulman, since the first time he set eyes on her as she climbed off the bus from Jerusalem. Lying in bed on Sabbath afternoons, he thought about the way she moved as she cleared tables in the dining hall. He had once caught a glimpse of her rushing home from work in the orchards, maintaining her grace of movement even in the pouring rain.

“Oh, God in heaven, listen. It’s about the Warsaw Ghetto.” The young man turned up the volume of the radio. “The Nazi bastards have brought in flame-throwers. Since yesterday they have been systemically burning every building, block by block, to the ground. People have reported seeing women with small children in their arms jumping out of windows and off roofs, their clothes on fire.”

Bugaj Ghetto, Poland, 1940
A letter
“The men with the pushcart come to collect bodies. There are always bodies. They shoot people every day. I don't know why. In this place there is no why. They kill us as you swat a fly. I believe it was a mercy that your parents left this world when they did. It becomes worse here every day. You will live and tell the truth of this place. God bless you.”

I posted the first chapters of The Lonely Tree on a writers' workshop run by the London Arts Council. There it received a Book of the Year award and Holland Park Press of London asked to see the complete manuscript. Not long afterwards I received an email from them. "We want to publish your book." Hey, you never know when a fantasy is going to come true.
~ Yael Politis ~