Who is Ben from Fugitive Pieces and what is their importance?

Ben is the narrator of Book II. He admires the work of Holocaust poet, Jakob Beer. In Book II, Ben talks to Jakob posthumously, telling him how his work has helped him understand his own dysfunctional life. Late in life, Ben learns that his name is not actually short for Benjamin, but rather the generic word for "son" in Hebrew. His mother gave him his name because she was terrified of losing another child to the angel of death. Two of Ben's siblings perished in the camps during World War II, while his parents survived.