In the summer of 1942, as SS troops continued with their systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies and other minority groups, a small convoy of caravans makes its way through a dense forest. Bernardo, a young Gypsy boy, goes in search of food at a nearby farm but as he returns to the camp he witnesses the terrible sight of his family being murdered by German soldiers. Alone and vulnerable, he finds a place in an orphanage where conditions are foul beyond belief and he is at the mercy of a paedophile priest. But Bernardo will not accept the treatment and stabs the priest in the face with a nail, before escaping. Finding a traveling circus, he joins it and as he gets older he finds that the pretty girls who perform in it have more to teach him about life than he had ever imagined. But even in this idyllic environment Bernardo cannot escape the past and the memories of his past haunt him every day. Can he find a way to eradicate them and also bring a change in the way orphaned children are cared for?
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
-James Calderwood. 'Opal Eggs of Fire', 'The Opal Dragon' and 'Great White Shark Tales'