Mule boy

In one long, musical sentence, Krivak (The Bear) unspools the luminous story of Ondro, a son of Slovak immigrants and the only survivor of a 1929 Pennsylvania coal mine disaster. The narrative traces how the deaths of miners John Chibala and Stefan Bozak and their buddies Matty and Emil affect Ondro throughout his life. While in prison during WWII as a conscientious objector, a fellow inmate teaches him to "believe there is no not being," and that like those lost in the mine, "I will be of the earth one day." His wistful memories of working underground yield vivid images ("it was a thing of beauty... the sounds and shadows of the men inside that room like a play"). Over the years, Ondro is visited by the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Emil; he's able to tell them about Emil's harrowing last moments and to relay Emil's last words, telling his descendants "how much he loved your mother and thanked God for her because she was so beautiful." Ondro credits John with saving him, and John's daughter, Magda, becomes the love of his life. In the final pages, crucial details of how Ondro escaped come out during a fireside chat with Magda. The slow drip of information builds suspense, ensuring that readers don't tire of the breathless format. Along the way, Krivak brilliantly succeeds at plumbing the depths of the human spirit and showing how the dead live on in memory. This is flawless. (Feb.)

After a 1929 mining accident, a young boy's life splits as he tries to find meaning in his lucky survival. Krivak manages to portray an entire life as a fever dream through the anxious propulsion of an entire book that unfolds as a single sentence. A love story that honors patience and destiny, this novel centers around Ondro Prach, whose life splits in a violent fracture when he's the sole survivor of an accident in a Hazelton, Pennsylvania, coal mine. Ondro tells the story of his job guiding the mule and the horrific accident that occurs the first and only time he goes down into the mine when he's just 13. He's relaying his memory of the accident to family members of the miners who died, who come to visit him as an old man at his home in New Hampshire. They make these pilgrimages to learn about the final words of their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers. Ondro tries to find meaning for himself in a life that's been defined by tragedy; his father, too, died in a mining accident when Ondro was just a boy. He spent time in jail during World War II because he refused to fight, a decision informed by the pacifism he embraced after having been bullied in school for surviving the mining accident. Ondro's life has been given purpose by the love of Magda Chibala, the daughter of one of the men who died when Ondro was the mule boy. After the funeral, she hugs him as others turn away, and this gesture reverberates through their shared lives. The two eventually marry, and while Ondro's time in prison leads to their separation, the book's final section captures a breathtaking reunion that artfully explicates a philosophy of life, love, and death that's subtly illuminated throughout. Fate and chance are examined with artful, electrifying energy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.