In a small Bavarian town, a displaced persons camp set up by the Allies after World War II sets the scene for the opening of Fran Bartkowski's touching novel, An Afterlife. There, Ruby and Ilya, both survivors of concentration and labor camps, meet at a time of heightened intensity, mate and wait to find out where their lives are about to begin again, either in America or what is then known as Palestine. They have survived the war, but are hardly...