The street sweeper - Elliot Perlman

On the crowded streets of New York City there are even more stories
than there are people passing each other every day... only some of these
stories survive to become history.

Lamont Williams, recently
released from prison and working as a hospital janitor, strikes up an
unlikely friendship with a patient, an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor
who starts to tell him of his extraordinary past.

Meanwhile
Adam Zignelik, the son of a prominent Jewish civil rights lawyer, is
facing a personal crisis: almost 40-years-old, his long-term
relationship is faltering and his academic career has stalled. It's only
when one of his late father's closest friends, the civil rights
activist William McCray, suggests a promising research topic that the
possibility of some kind of redemption arises.

Dealing with memory, racism and the human capacity for guilt, resilience, heroism, and unexpected kindness, The Street Sweeper spans over fifty years, and ranges from New York to Melbourne, Chicago, Warsaw and Auschwitz, as these two very different paths - Adam's and Lamont's - lead to one greater story.