This novel consists of the first-person narrative of a young Jewish boy, Aron, in Poland; beginning in the late 1930s, it follows his family as it moves to Warsaw and, inevitably, into the ghetto following the German invasion. What I read about the book before I started it indicated that it would be primarily a story about Janusz Korczak, a real historical figure, who ran the principal orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto and was a passionate advocate for the rights of children. Really, though, he doesn’t feature in the story, except in glimpses, until about two thirds of the way through, when all of the other adults in Aron’s life have been taken from him.