The Venice Sketchbook

by Rhys Bowen

We humans have the capacity to survive almost anything. Not only to survive but to come through triumphant. Another door will open. You’ll see. A better one. A safer one. A brighter future.”

We turned into a blind alley, so narrow that the girls had to walk in single file. There was a distinct smell of bad drains.

You cannot live someone else’s life. Your life is what you make of it. You have to decide what you want.”

It seemed that every Jew had vanished from the face of the Earth. It took a while before we learned names like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen. And then we knew. And there were no tears left to cry.