Seasons

Part One Josef Chapters one - eight Winter 1846 Two people, a woman and boy are dying in a hut in a forest in Moravia. The one survivor Josef having watched them die flees to the nearby village of Jablunka seeking help. He is given by the village overseer to the local pigkeeper. Milos sells him to the General Overseer Karl Radek who takes him to Marienberg in Bohemia. There he gives him to Baron Von Kraunitz an admirer of books, brandy and boys. Leaving the administration of his lands to Radek he absorbs himself in the writing of a history of the German making peoples. Radek determined to keep him that way gives him Josef. Radek is hopeful that with revolution looming in Austria he will be able to persuade Frederick to travel toi Britain and then on to America. In 1848 Austria erupts. Frederick flees. Thus begins a voyage that will bring Josef to America and then to Canada. Part Two The Hunt Chapters nine to thirteenPaul Jessup a former New York policeman and now an investigator employed by Charles Godwin, a New York lawyer, has been hired to locate a missing servant boy, Josef Krivanek. Josef has been made the heir to what is left of the Krivanek fortune. Godwin having been appointed his guardian by Frederick sends Jessup north to find him. He does so with unexpected consequences. Part Three Chapters fourteen to thirty - one Josef begins his first year in Kilmarnock. As the weather turns colder he begins to experience the reality of a Canadian winter and with it life in the village. He learns more about the people, their backgrounds and their need to rely upon one another to survive. Whatever their differences their need for each other in order to survive comes first. He begins to understand more about Alex and more about the McKays. One thing does not change, his hatred for himself. It continues to haunt him both by day and by night. As the winter deepens he meets more of the villagers. Elijah Grimsby, trapper and hunter tells him about when Alex first came to the valley. He travels with Doctor McKay and works in his office. Slowly he comes to understand that the McKays can be trusted not to betray him. However he is still racked by dreams of Radek returning. He does not know that Radek is dead. As spring approaches he has won some acceptance that he belongs to Kilmarnock, from the villagers and from himself. Yet he is also aware that acceptance in the village is based on a lie. He must continue to deny the right of Josef to exist. Even as he is told that he has become one with the village he admits that for him there can be no crossing over. AS the spring deepens Peter MacTavish, despite his fears and mistakes, has been accepted by Kilmarnock as Alex's son.