A German-born Jew who became a French writer and activist, he devoted his life to healing the divide between two historic enemies after the trauma of World War II.
In “Ferris,” a girl and her grandmother are visited by a friendly ghost; in Erin Entrada Kelly’s “The First State of Being,” a boy is visited by a time traveler.
Amitava Kumar’s novel links a professor who lived through a nation’s tribulations and his daughter, an Atlanta journalist, before and after the pandemic.