I Am the Clay: A Novel“[Chaim] Potok writes powerfully about the suffering of innocent people caught in the cross-fire of a war they cannot begin to understand. . . . Humanity and compassion for his characters leap from every page.”—San Francisco Chronicle As the Chinese and the army of the North sweep south during the Korean War, an old peasant farmer and his wife flee their village across the bleak, bombed-out landscape. They soon come upon a boy in a ditch who is wounded and unconscious. Stirred by possessiveness and caring the woman refuses to leave the boy behind. The man thinks she is crazy to nurse this boy, to risk their lives for some dying stranger. Angry and bewildered, he waits for the boy to die. And when the boy does not die, the old man begins to believe that the boy possesss a magic upon which all their lives depend. . . . |
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A-frame Arirang Badooki began beneath the quilts bowl boy lay boy's brush brushwood burning carpenter cave Chaim Potok chest climbed cold compound cook dark dead ditch dooki earth eyes face father felt fire firepit fish flames floor food trucks frozen gazing ginseng girl gone Grandfather grave hands head healing spirits heard hill inside Jamesway jeeps Korean soldier listening looked main road moaned morning mother mound mountains mouth moved mudflats murmured night North oil drums old woman paddies path plain pond Potok pulled quickly refugees returned rice rice wine river riverbank Seoul shack shadows shafts shanty shivering shoulders side silent sleep sleeping bag sleeping pads smell smoke snow soup spirits squatted stared stone stood take my turn teenage boy took trees trembling trucks turned Uncle valley village walked wall watched wind woke women wood wound