The author of this endearing memoir is an 82-year-old retiree living in Florida. How he got there is an amazing tale. Born in Vienna as Erich Lifschütz, an upper middle class Jew with Polish roots, he left Austria with his parents in 1938, at the age of 8. As Jews, they were not permitted to take much money out of the country as they shuffled across France and came to settle in Italy, as the Nazis marched across borders. You would expect such an account to be filled with the horrors of war. But it is not.Lamet is a natural storyteller. When he identifies himself as being al confino, he is referring to the system of enforced exile, or confinement of untrustworthy elements, which was put in place by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini after allying with Hitler. The author’s father made the fateful choice of returning to Poland to see family, leaving his wife and son on their own for the duration of the war. The author and his mother, whom he calls “Mutti,” are affectionate, yet she is as willful and worry-prone as he is active and adventure-prone.Excerpt from a review by prof. Andrew Burstein of SLU What makes this book so animated are the cast of characters as they survive in the mind of Erich (Enrico, in his Italian incarnation). A shoemaker, young priests, teachers, neighbors -- they are his extended family in times of trial and confusion, as the outsiders adapt to a colorless townscape of steep, dusty, narrow streets, a place without running water. A compelling story of World War II as seen through the eyes of an adventurous young boy during a period when his mother fears the Nazi hunt and is concerned about putting food on the table for her and her son. Written from the perspective of a child of 7 to 11 years of age, this World War II memoir is unique in many ways. Growing up in Italy, away from his home in Vienna, the boy lives an adventurous life, unaware that the world is crumbling around him. Note that any reference to A Child al Confino applies to A Gift from the Enemy since both titles refer to the same book. KIRKUS REVIEW Lamet offers a tender, highly observant memoir of his boyhood years in Italy during World War II. With his Jewish mother and father, the author spent the first eight years of his life in Austria in a comfortable bourgeois atmosphere. But then the storm clouds of war forced the family to move from Vienna to Milan, Paris, Nice and San Remo, before they found the obscure sanctuary of Ospedaletto, Italy. Along the way, Lamet's father left for Poland, and therefore plays little role in the remainder of the memoir, but his mother remains a steady force throughout. A great quote from an editor at Heeb Magazine(heeb magazine.com): "All great Holocaust memoirs make you cry. Not all make you laugh as well, but Lamet's does, with a dark, dry humane wit that you can tell served the author during his time as a boy in Mussolini's Italy. Books like these are a bittersweet gift, moving, and,overall, important." - Jeff Newelt, Heeb Magazine It is indeed gratifying to have received so many compliments and 5 star ratings. Mostly happy for having been able to complete a serious work that took place in an era of the greatest tragedy in human history and still maintained my humor and hope in the future of mankind. Enrico Lamet was born Erich Lifschutz on May 27, 1930, into an upper-middle-class Jewish family. Both his parents, born in Poland, moved to Vienna before the first Great War. On March 18, 1938, five days after the Anschluss, when German troops had marched into Vienna, Lamet's family fled to Italy, where he spent most of the next twelve years. After World War II ended, Lamet settled in Naples with his family. He finished high school in that city and studied Engineering at the University of Naples. In 1950 the family moved to the United States, where Lamet continued his engineering studies at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, near his family's home. Deciding that business would be more in keeping with his personality, he embarked on a business career. Over the years he became involved in a variety of enterprises until his eventual retirement as a CEO in 1992. Fluent in German, Italian, English, Spanish, and Yiddish, Lamet served as an interpreter for the U.S. State Department and taught Italian for several years. Lamet has studied piano and voice and, to this day, enjoys performing Neapolitan songs. Lamet has three children, two stepchildren, and seven granddaughters. They were the reason this book was written. He and his wife spend their time in Pittsfield, Mass.