Momik, the only child of two survivors, is brought up in Israel by a family seeking to ignore the past. No-one will explain to him what life was like 'Over There' or what the 'Nazi Beast' is. His 9-year-old mind imagines a Nazi Beast hiding in the cellar, waiting to feed on Jews.

Momik increasingly shields himself from all feeling and attachment. But through the stories his great-uncle tells him-the same stories he told the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp-Momik, too, becomes "infected...

It is Ireland in the 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scare. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and home for the first time.