This book looks very good.

From Amazon:
"During the war, we kept our Jew in a box." So begins The Man in the Box, Thomas Moran's debut novel. The Jew is Dr. Robert Weiss, an Austrian doctor on the run from the Nazis; the box is a small space built into the back of a hayloft owned by Herr Lukasser, an Austrian farmer. In the course of his two-year confinement, Dr. Weiss's only contact with the outside world is through Lukasser's son, Niki, whose life the doctor saved many years before, and Niki's blind girlfriend, Sigi. To these two teenagers he imparts the story of his life, fantastical tales conveyed in whispers through the wooden wall of his cell. Writing in spare, clean prose, Mr. Moran captures perfectly the tumultuous interior life of children on the verge of adulthood: the petty cruelties they visit on one another, their sexual stirrings and inchoate longings of adolescence. In the case of Niki, the added burden of the secret he must keep makes this passage particularly perilous--to himself, his family, and the Man in the Box.

Turning this into a bookring:
Kernow8, Virginia
arugh48187, MN
Jas330, WA
DawnMomOfFour, Ontario
Witchie, Portugal (Will ship internationally) :-)
Kymberlie, TX

Released on Friday, October 24, 2003 at fellow BookCrosser in trade, postal release USA.

This just arrived in the mail - thanks CasualReader. I'm half way through a novel at the moment and will start this as soon as I finish that one, probably by the end of the week.

This was an absorbing book written from the perspective of a teenager whose father hides a Jew in a hidden compartment in their barn, in WW2 Austria. Interesting thoughts about whether we help people out of a sense of duty or just because it feels like the right thing to do; about disability - the narrator's girlfriend is blind, and another character in the story has lost a limb in the war; and about what people's minds would do if they were in solitary confinement for 23 hours and 45 minutes each day for several years.

I took this book with me on vacation - to Kissimmee! I only noticed the coincidence when we were driving past the "Welcome to Orange County" signs on the way from Orlando airport, and I looked at the "Orange County Library System" stamps on the book edges and realised I'd brought the book home!

Just got this in my mailbox today. I have a few bookrays in front of it, but I am a fast reader and will get to it soon.

I enjoyed this book. It was a bit odd, but the concept of somebody living in a box for two years was fascinating. I never actually thought about there being Germans that hid Jews and didn't give in to the anti-Semitism, but I guess there had to have been.

Thanks for sharing this and sorry for keeping it so long. I have the address of the next recipient and will drop it in the mail on Monday.

Released on Monday, January 26, 2004 at Post Office at 153rd and Garrett in Apple Valley, MN, postal release USA.

And its off to the next reader....

Got this in the mail today, will read next.

This book definetly wasn't what I was expecting. You'd think that the book was about the jew in the box, when really it is more about Niki's life than anything. It's almost as though Dr. Weiss is a side note, just there.
It was an okay book, but I probably would have liked it better if I had expected the book to be about Niki.
I'm sending this book off the dawnmomoffour today. :-)

Received this in the mail. I had forgotten about this ring :-)
Will read ASAP
Thanks!

Released on Friday, March 12, 2004 at Mailed to a fellow Bookcrosser in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

Returning this bookring book to casualreader. The next person on the list passed on it. The last person on the list hasn't answered PM's for address, so off it goes home. Thanks casualreader for the opportunity to read this book!

Arrived save and sound at home. Thanks guys!