An Epiphany in Lilacs: in the Aftermath of the Camps

*****2026 PenCraft Book Award Winner in Realistic Fiction
*****2025 Firebird Book Award Winner in Holocaust and Friendship Categories
*****2025 Readers’ Choice Book Award in Adult Fiction
*****2025 Literary Global Book Award finalist in Historical Fiction and Cover Design-Fiction
Outstanding Creator Awards (Fall & Winter 2025)
* 1st Place – Jewish Literature
* 2nd Place – Historical Fiction
* 3rd Place – Multicultural / Multilingual / Bilingual Fiction
* 3rd Place – Motivational / Inspirational Books
 
An Epiphany in Lilacs is a novel set in a displaced persons camp outside Hamburg, Germany, following the end of World War II. After liberation in May 1945, Daniel, a 14-year-old Latvian Jew, is treated in a field hospital in the British zone of partitioned Germany. A survivor of various concentration camps, Daniel fights to recover from starvation and disease. Racked by nightmares, a nearly nightly occurrence, Daniel finds sleep almost impossible. Through his love of nature and pre-war memories, Daniel struggles to find comfort. He forms an intriguing bond with an older German gentile, another survivor. Later on, as he joins a theater troupe, Daniel tries to move on with his life, yet is still searching for the whereabouts of his mother and two sisters. The story is loosely inspired by the experiences of the author’s father when he was a young Holocaust survivor.