An Austrian Jew whose parents were exterminated during World War II, Lind has translated the bitter memories of his youth into grotesque tales illustrating the horror of the Nazi years. The title story from "Soul of Wood" (1962), actually a short novel, concerns the fate of a paralytic Jewish boy, the son of Nazi victims. He is left on a mountaintop by his guardian, who then vies with others to reclaim the boy for exploitation; all the horrors of Nazism are encountered as events transpire. "Journey through the Night", another story, describes with black humor the bizarre intellectual game between an admitted cannibal and his proposed victim in a railway compartment.
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