The inexplicable and miraculous is present from the first moments of author Bruce J. Berger’s THE FLIGHT OF THE VEIL; the teenaged Nicky Covo, derisively nicknamed “Chrisma” by his fellow fighters in the Greek Resistance, somehow survives a grenade blast while the German perpetrator, only a few feet away, is incinerated. Divine intervention? Nicky doesn’t bother with this concept, because he’s already well on his way to having completely rejected the Jewish faith in which he was raised. Berger beautifully draws the character of Nicky, a man who’s buried his torment so deeply in his subconscious, even his attempts at consoling a suicidal patient sound hollow and disconnected to the reader’s ears. This is purposeful on Berger’s part– we are entering Covo’s life at a moment when his seemingly infinite reserve of detachment is just about to start failing him in earnest. But Berger shows us in small ways that Nicky Covo is not emotionally or spiritually dead yet; he keeps a copy of “A Prayer for Owen Meany” on his desk, ostensibly to help his patients who still have faith, and he has one picture framed on his wall, a crayon drawing that his 6 year-old sister, Kalli, gave him the night Nicky left his family to hide from the Nazis.
At the same time, we’re introduced to an indefatigable character halfway across the world, the Abbess Fevronia of the Holy Monastery of St. Vlassios in Inousa, Greece. Sturdy and delightfully bullheaded, she is the conduit to Nicky’s possible reunion with the deeply mysterious Sister Theodora, a nun who has been in Fevronia’s care for nearly forty years. Of course, it’s ludicrous that this devotee to Christ could be Nicky’s long lost Jewish sister, and Berger admirably takes us through the paces of Nicky’s mind as he struggles with concepts of God and the existence of the supernatural. His battle is personified in the character of Helen, an old flame who suddenly reappears in Nicky’s life. Helen is a deeply spiritual woman who keeps the Sabbath; she’s also a tender, wry, and witty character who serves as a voice for the reader’s thoughts. Through’s Helen’s story, we come to care for Nicky, witnessing his pain, empathizing with his dogged atheism, and occasionally gritting our teeth at his infuriating obtuseness. A few minor characters round out the cast nicely, particularly Nicky’s daughter Kayla, who has a few heartbreaking moments, and a thorny villager named Andros, who seems to understand Sister Theodora better than the church to whom she’s devoted her life.
At its heart, THE FLIGHT OF THE VEIL is a mystery novel–the mystery of faith and the illogical presence of hope in the midst of tremendous suffering– and the ultimate connection of all the dots is satisfying, both in plot and theme; it lives up to its opening quote by Elie Wiesel, “Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. I remember the killers, I remember the victims, even as I struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope.”
With deft, vivid prose, Bruce J. Berger’s THE FLIGHT OF THE VEIL takes the reader on the searing and inspiring journey of Nicky Covo, a man who thinks he has buried his World War II memories, only to have them demand his attention again with news of a possible modern-day miracle.
~Shari Simpson for IndieReader