First published 2009
At Atlit detention camp in Palestine, 270 Jewish refugees wait behind barbed wire in 1945. Four women share barracks and begin to share their stories. Shayndel fought Germans as a Polish partisan. Leonie fled Paris with her beauty intact but her world destroyed. Tedi, a tall Dutch blonde, wants to erase her memories completely. Zorah carries the weight of Auschwitz. Each woman arrived broken in different ways. The British authorities process papers and make decisions about their futures while the women face a harder task. They must decide whether to trust again, whether to hope again, whether to live again. In the cramped quarters and uncertain days of the camp, these strangers become allies. Their friendship grows as they help each other confront what they have lost and imagine what they might still become. The women discover that survival means more than simply staying alive.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, world-war-ii, jewish
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, resilience
Setting: Palestine, Atlit, Paris, Auschwitz
Period: 1945
294 pages · Hardcover · Scribner
Content warnings: war