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The Afterlife of Stars

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The Afterlife of Stars

By: Joseph Kertes
Narrated by: Tristan Morris
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About this listen

 As Russian tanks roll through the cobblestone streets of Budapest and shots ring out, young Robert and Attila Beck, inseparable brothers, peer from the boot of a toppled statue of Stalin at the first grisly signs of revolution. The year is 1956. That October day, Russian soldiers will storm their family home, prompting the boys' hurried escape from the city with their parents, grandmother, and two cousins. Not all will survive. Their immediate destination is Paris, and the town house of Hermina, their great-aunt, once a renowned opera singer, now a recluse who wears long gloves to preserve her dignity against a past scarred by an unspeakable violence.

Along the way, these two brothers encounter mysterious fellow travelers, witness the bewildering sights of a nation in transition, and grapple with rivalry and loss, while never losing their capacity for joy or their appreciation of humor, and each other, as they stare down the unaccountable and the absurd. Robert, the younger, idolizes the fiery Attila, whose growing edge of anger and rebellion threatens to endanger them both. As exiles in Paris, they seek adventure and whatever semblance of home they might find, from the unfamiliar streets to the labyrinthine sewers beneath. When the duo uncovers a long-held family secret involving a double agent and a daring Holocaust rescue, this novel hurtles toward its cataclysmic conclusion. A fleeting decision by Attila has consequences that will last a lifetime, and the bond that has proved unbreakable may be the brothers' undoing.

With dazzling storytelling and a firm belief in the power of humor in the face of turmoil, Joseph Kertes has crafted a fierce saga of identity and love that resonates through its final page. The Afterlife of Stars is not only a stirring account of one displaced family's possibilities for salvation, but also an extraordinary tale of the singular and enduring ties of brotherhood.

"Devastating yet unnervingly funny.... inspired and deeply affecting....a story for the ages."-Julie Orringer, New York Times Book Review

"The Afterlife of Stars moved me more than any other novel I've read in recent memory."-Tim O'Brien Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Jewish Literary Fiction Political World Literature Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"Devastating yet unnervingly funny....it's not every writer who can render a scene like this with such verisimilitude so many years after the fact....What is clear--and unquestionably lucky for us--is that Kertes's memories survived his own family's flight to Canada and have found expression in this inspired and deeply affecting novel. 'I'm not asking for a story for the ages,' Robert tells his Aunt Hermina. 'I'm asking what happened to you.' Kertes has given us both."
—Julie Orringer, New York Times Book Review
"The Afterlife of Stars is Joseph Kertes's masterpiece. Robert Beck, the young narrator, is absolutely captivating (and very funny!) as he takes us along on his terrifying journey."
—Miriam Toews, two-time Giller Prize finalist for All My Puny Sorrows and A Complicated Kindness
"The Afterlife of Stars moved me more than any other novel I've read in recent memory. It hypnotizes. It delights. It shines on every page with a quiet, implacable, blanketing beauty-like a snowfall. Beyond all else, The Afterlife of Stars reaches into your chest and takes hold of your heart and does not let go, not even after the last page is turned. The Afterlife of Stars keeps shining on. What an exquisite novel."—Tim O'Brien, National Book Award-winning author of The Things They Carried
"The Afterlife of Stars is tender in its evocation of fierceness and wrenching in its rendering of two brothers' hunger to penetrate both the wonders and the awful secrets of a world that always seems just out of reach. It's memorably sad and surprisingly funny on the elusiveness of home and the intensity of family bonds."
—Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron
"We meet the Beck brothers at the very moment history lays its claim on them. Their bond is sure to become one of literature's great and sustaining relationships. Joseph Kertes writes with tremendous love for the idiosyncratic and passionate loyalties of family. With masterly concision, he expresses the trauma of an era. This is a book of remarkable scope and depth; unforgettable and deeply moving."—Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
"The Afterlife of Stars blazes with every single good thing that a work of fiction ever does or could do. It is brilliant. Radiant."—Richard Bausch, PEN/Malamud Award-winning author of Peace
"Agony, humor, and a boy's bewilderment and wonder coalesce in this glittering novel. Joseph Kertes evokes a vanishing culture with poignancy and love. His boy-narrator is a marvelous creation."
—D. M. Thomas, Man Booker Prize finalist for The White Hotel
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What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I love reading stories set around World War Two but for me the book did not set itself into its time period well. It starts with a family being told to leave their home. We don't know anything about the family or the context, except what we see through a child's eyes. The family dynamics are well shown but that's about it. There's a good scene at the station when the father bargains for tickets to leave, but there is no tension or drama. I found it hard to work out the passage of time in the story and figure out if anything was happening. It's like a piece of art that everyone raves about and you just don't get it.

Did Tristan Morris do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

I disliked the silly accents but the narrator was consistent and yes, he did a good job of different characters.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I was hugely disappointed and frustrated. I don't need a history book as I'm already familiar with the period in history, but this honestly felt like someone had ripped out the start of the book and expected the reader / listener not to mind. I don't mind books starting mid story but I kept thinking maybe more backstory would be revealed and it didn't happen.

Any additional comments?

I didn't enjoy this book so I can't recommend it. The focus is on family, conversation,and the narrow views of a teenage boy. Sadly there is no drama, tension or action. Even if you are aware of World War Two and Hungary and the terrible things people experienced, this does not come across. It is a micro look at one family, at one period in time and from a child's perspective. I realise a child narrator can't provide a comment on world events but there was a lot of description typical of a teenage boy - watching women undress and how babies are made and very little of interest to me.

feels like the middle of a longer book

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