We Are Only Ghosts: A Remarkable Novel of Survival in the Wake of WWII

An exhilarating, brutally candid saga about sexuality and war, tenderness and trauma, young passion and fierce hate, as a teenage boy’s unexpected, complicated relationship with a Nazi officer in a WWII death camp is resurrected in 1960s New York City.

We Are Only Ghosts depicts queer desire against the horrors of death camps and the psychosis of those who got out alive—haunted forever by those who did not—balancing the violence and hatred of war and its aftermath with many poignant moments of tenderness and joy. For readers of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne, and Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart.

"Told from the important and often overlooked perspective of a young gay man imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, We Are Only Ghosts evocatively portrays how the things that happen to us, both tragic and beautiful, shape who we are, and how we have the power to choose who we become in spite of our suffering. This gripping testament to the strength of the human spirit will both haunt and inspire you.” —Ellen Marie Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

New York City, 1968: The customers at Café Marie don’t come just for the excellent coffee and pastries. They come for the sophisticated ambiance, and the illusion of being somewhere other than a bustling, exhausting city. Headwaiter Charles Ward helps create that illusion through impeccable service—unobtrusive, nearly invisible, yet always watchful.

It’s a skill Charles honed as a young Jewish boy in war-torn Europe, when avoiding attention might mean the difference between life and death. But even then, one man saw him all too clearly—a Nazi officer who was both his savior and tormentor.

At seventeen, Charles was deported to Auschwitz with his family. There he was singled out by Obersturmführer Berthold Werden, who hid him in his home. Their entanglement produced a tortured affection mixed with hatred that flares to life again, decades later, when Berthold walks into Café Marie.

Drawn back into Berthold’s orbit, Charles is forced to revisit the pain and the brief, undeniable pleasures of the life he once knew. And if he acts on his growing hunger for revenge, will he lose his only tether to the past—the only other witness to who he was and everything he endured—or find peace at last?

“I was mesmerized by this gorgeously written novel that explores the psychological cost of survival with unflinching honesty and unwavering compassion. A young survivor of the Holocaust who crosses borders, decades, and identities in an attempt to leave behind his horrific past learns he will never be whole again until he finds the courage to confront his ghosts. An astounding story that will linger in my mind and heart for years to come, We Are Only Ghosts will take you on a riveting journey through unimaginable loss and corrupted love toward its ultimate destination of healing and repair.” —Kim van Alkemade, New York Times Bestselling Author of Counting Lost Stars

“Profound, moving, and absolutely timely, We Are Only Ghosts shows how our identity determines destiny. Charles is gay, Czech, Jewish; as a teenager, he was ghettoized and subjected to the depravity of the Third Reich. In adulthood he discovers the courage to confront the ghosts who return to haunt him, including that of the boy he himself had once been. I’m still pondering the questions posed by this touching novel.” —William di Canzio, Author of Alec