Berlin in 1938 is not a place for Jews. Amanda’s husband is a noted cardiologist, and he has refused to leave, saying his patients need him. He stayed too long and was arrested, leaving Amanda to care for their two small daughters, Vera and Lina, trying to find a way to save them. The answer came unexpectedly from the father of a patient. He arrived at the door with the news that her husband had died and with an envelope containing tickets for a ship to Cuba, where Amanda’s brother lived. But he had only been able to get two landing permits, and her husband wanted her to send the two little girls to Cuba alone. Amanda planned to do has her husband had wanted, but at the last minute she couldn’t lose both girls. As the ship was boarding, she asked an older couple to care for Vera and she kept Lina with her. Then Amanda and Lina made their way to the small French village of Haute-Vienne, where a friend had agreed to take them in. They would be fine. She was sure of that. After all, she and Lina did not look Jewish. This book is based on true incidents and is full of the horrors of Nazi occupied France. Mainly it is the story of little Lina and the identities she had to take up, her struggle to remember who she really was. At the beginning, this was a gripping narrative, but it became rather slow and plodding toward the end.

eGalley review                                                           Publication date 5.7.19