Nightfather

Dutch poet and journalist Friedman's first novel is a harrowing and deeply moving account of three siblings' struggle to understand their father, a Holocaust survivor plagued by nightmares and horrific memories. ``I've had camp,'' Ephraim explains, referring to his ordeal as if it were the flu or measles, hoping to make it more comprehensible to his sullen preteen son, Max, to the younger and more innocent Simon and to his unnamed eight-year-old daughter, who narrates the story in a terse, precocious, lyrical voice. Eventually, Ephraim relives his camp experience with adult candor, telling his offspring of gassings, slave labor, torture and sadistic beatings, of how he murdered a camp boss and of his miraculous liberation and reunion with Bette, his wife and the children's mother. Friedman, whose father was a Holocaust survivor, manages despite all odds to tell her story with a light touch, showing keen insight into the emotional confusion and moral growth that the siblings undergo as they strive to fathom absolute evil and how it has scarred their father. (Sept.)