Far from You I Grew

As a toddler, shortly after his christening attended by his 15-year-old mother, Nicolas was taken into a children’s home. We now see him more than a decade later, as a dreamy teenager who likes to get lost in his favorite book, the Odyssey. With his best friend Saef, he builds treehouses to sleep in, in case they ever run away from the home.

But Nicolas does more than just dream about running away; he really does it. His mother, who has now had three more children, is worried. She wants his life to get better, and for him to come back to live with her, but how can she ask him to do that after all these years?

When Nicolas hears that during the Second World War his great-grandparents fled from a camp in the same place where he now lives, he realizes that fleeing can have major consequences—were it not for their desire for freedom, he would probably never have existed. This gripping coming-of-age story shows how choices can determine the course of a life.