Available September 2026
Sirens
SIRENS is a story about a sixteen-year-old Roma boy, called Gabriel, who having fled Bulgarian and German invaders in wartime Greece, ends up hiding for five months in a coffin beneath the floorboards of a barn. Phoebe, a Greek girl his age, brings him provisions and inevitably the two fall in love.
Their union is opposed not only by the invaders, but also by her family, especially her father who works for the Greek underground. Despite the daily challenge to stay alive and the tragedy of war that he has witnessed, Gabriel remains enchanted by the small miracles around him and the possibilities provided by connection and love.
SIRENS is Gabriel’s diary of his days in hiding and after.
Early Praise for Sirens:
"Sirens is that rarest of gifts—a novel that holds the whole world. It brought home to me the glory of art, of being human, of love. It made me grateful I can read."
- Alissa York, author of Far Cry
What if Romeo and Juliet were set in Greece during the German occupation in the Second World War? Original and moving, Sirens looks into dark corners and examines the resilience of the human spirit. Kertes illuminates a chapter of history that echoes our own troubled times. Generous and human and masterful.
-Don Gillmor, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award and author of Breaking and Entering
Joseph Kertes
Joseph Kertes escaped from Hungary as a child with his family during the Hungarian Revolution. He founded Humber’s creative writing and comedy programs and was the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and innovation. He was for many years Humber's Dean of Creative and Performing Arts.
His novels, among them Winter Tulips, Gratitude and Last Impressions, have won or been finalists for a number of awards. His novel, The Afterlife of Stars, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Pick. Kertes was the recipient of the 2017 Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contribution to literature and to the literary community.
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Previous Works
Gratitude
March 1944: War's darkest period descends upon Hungary's Jews. By the time it ends, over half a million Jews will have been murdered. Gratitude tells the story of that period, through a group of people whom terrible circumstance has thrown together, and of lives and loves saved and lost. A brilliant exploration with deep humanity of the complexities of the human psyche in its darkest hour.
"Gratitude grabbed me and wouldn't let go; I found it totally engrossing. It is a huge, sprawling novel, yet beautifully precise. Gratitude brings new life to well-known history, but the lasting strength of this wonderful book is its people, in all their flaws and glories. It is a massive achievement."
- Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, winner of the Man Booker Prize
The Afterlife of Stars
In the waning months of 1956, while Russian tanks roll into the public squares of Budapest to crush the Hungarian Revolution, brothers Robert and Attila Beck flee with their family to the Paris townhouse of their great-aunt Hermina. As they travel through minefields both real and imagined, Robert and Attila grapple with sibling rivalry, family secrets, and incalculable loss to arrive at a place they thought they’d lost forever: home.
"The Afterlife of Stars blazes with every single good thing that a work of fiction ever does or could do. It is brilliant. Radiant"
- Richard Bausch, PEN/Malamud Award-winning author of Peace
Last Impressions
Zoltan Beck is dying. His devoted but long-suffering sons, Ben and Frank, are trying to prepare themselves and their families for Zoltan's eventual departure...but they can't quite bring themselves to believe that the end is really at hand, and neither can Zoltan himself. But as he faces the end of his life, he discovers a heartbreaking secret from the War that will ultimately bring the family together--or irrevocably disrupt it.
"I finished Joe Kertes’s dark comedy, Last Impressions, and booked a trip to Hungary, so vivid and engrossing is Mr. Kertes’s creation of the Beck Family and their visit back to their father’s past.
Cantankerous, unwavering, iron-willed, preposterously hilarious, Zoltan Beck is a protagonist for the ages. Stop streaming and start binging on this unputdownable book."
- Andrea Martin, Emmy Award-winning actor