CRACK! BANG! (Auditory Imagery)
In the opening pages of the novel, Gratz depicts twelve-year-old Josef Landau waking to the sound of Nazi Brownshirts forcing their way into his family's home. Gratz writes: "CRACK! BANG! Josef Landau shot straight up in bed, his heart racing. That sound—it was like someone had kicked the front door in." In this example of auditory imagery, Gratz immerses the reader in Josef's point of view by describing the alarming sound he hears before contextualizing where the sound has come from.
A Giant Dollhouse (Visual Imagery)
While Mahmoud is doing homework one evening, a bomb destroys an entire wall of his family's apartment. Gratz writes: "Mahmoud stared up at their building. The whole front had collapsed, and Mahmoud felt like he was looking into a giant dollhouse. Each floor had a living room and a kitchen just like theirs, all decorated differently." In this example of visual imagery, Gratz illustrates the bizarre sight of one's apartment building suddenly torn open to the air by comparing it to a doll's house. To add to the realism of the scene, Gratz details how each apartment, though the same in layout, bears decor unique to the now-displaced occupants.
He Smelled So Ripe (Olfactory Imagery)
After receiving word from Josef's father that he has been released from the Dachau concentration camp, Josef, Ruthie, and Rachel take a train to Hamburg. They meet Aaron at the docks, and Josef is startled to see his father look so emaciated and disheveled. After six months of psychological torture at Dachau, Aaron "smell[s] so ripe—like the alley behind a butcher shop—that Josef ha[s] to turn his head away." In this example of olfactory imagery, Gratz immerses the reader in Josef's experience by detailing how the pungent, rotten-meat smell emanating from his father prevents him from enjoying their reunion.
A Sound Like a Gunshot—POK! (Auditory Imagery)
In Kilis, Turkey, Mahmoud observes people celebrating a wedding at the refugee camp. In Syria it is standard for a long procession of vehicles to accompany the bride and groom, but here there is only an old Opal taxi and a group of teenage boys trailing on foot. Gratz writes: "But everyone seemed to be having fun. The old taxi’s exhaust pipe made a sound like a gunshot—POK!—and everybody ducked instinctively. The spell of happiness and safety was momentarily broken by the unforgettable memories of the chaos they had just escaped." In this example of auditory imagery, the sound of a car backfiring triggers the nervous systems of the refugees, whose bodies are still primed to react, unable to forget the years they have spent living in a war zone.
